Hamas source to ToI: We’ll hold talks on disarming, but we can’t be forced to give up guns

A Hamas source told The Times of Israel on Sunday that the group will only agree to give up its weapons through negotiations that result in the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“This cannot be done by force or ultimatums. Israel used all of its military might for two years [to try and disarm Hamas], and it didn’t work,” the Hamas source said in a rare engagement with an Israeli media outlet.

The ability of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan to advance past its first phase largely hinges on Hamas agreeing to disarm, with Israel pledging to resume the war if the Palestinian terror group doesn’t agree to give up its weapons willingly.

Hamas’s readiness to discuss the issue may be a break from its long-standing insistence that disarmament demands are a nonstarter, but the steep conditions that the Hamas source set for progress are sure to further complicate Washington’s efforts to sustain the ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas has managed to reassert its dominance in the near-half of the Strip from which the IDF has withdrawn since the Trump plan’s phase one truce and hostage release deal was inked on October 9.

Hamas operatives search for the bodies of Israeli hostages in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, November 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
DOHA, Qatar — A Hamas source told The Times of Israel on Sunday that the group will only agree to give up its weapons through negotiations that result in the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“This cannot be done by force or ultimatums. Israel used all of its military might for two years [to try and disarm Hamas], and it didn’t work,” the Hamas source said in a rare engagement with an Israeli media outlet.

The ability of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan to advance past its first phase largely hinges on Hamas agreeing to disarm, with Israel pledging to resume the war if the Palestinian terror group doesn’t agree to give up its weapons willingly.

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Hamas’s readiness to discuss the issue may be a break from its long-standing insistence that disarmament demands are a nonstarter, but the steep conditions that the Hamas source set for progress are sure to further complicate Washington’s efforts to sustain the ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas has managed to reassert its dominance in the near-half of the Strip from which the IDF has withdrawn since the Trump plan’s phase one truce and hostage release deal was inked on October 9.

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The group agreed in that October deal to return, in one batch, all 20 remaining living hostages, giving up what had been seen as its remaining leverage over Israel despite having insisted for more than two years that the release would only be carried out in exchange for the full IDF withdrawal from Gaza. It also agreed to return the 28 bodies of deceased hostages still being held in the Strip. Twenty-seven of the bodies have been returned in a protracted process.