Hamas declared that any discussion of its disarmament before the first phase of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire is fully implemented amounts to “an overt attempt to continue the genocide against the Palestinian people” — the group’s sharpest public pushback yet against a central element of President Donald Trump’s postwar vision for Gaza.

In a televised statement, Hamas’s armed wing spokesperson Abu Ubaida said raising the weapons issue “in a crude manner” would not be accepted. “What the enemy is trying to push through today against the Palestinian resistance, via our brotherly mediators, is extremely dangerous,” he said.

It was not immediately clear whether the remarks constituted a formal rejection of the US-backed disarmament framework. Hamas political officials did not respond to requests for comment, and Israel offered no immediate response to Ubaida’s statement.

Hamas’s disarmament is among the most significant sticking points in efforts to implement Trump’s proposed “Board of Peace” plan for Gaza, which aims to cement the ceasefire that halted two years of full-scale fighting last October. Three sources told Reuters last week that Hamas has told mediators it will not discuss giving up its weapons without guarantees that Israel will fully withdraw from Gaza.

Hamas accused Israel of “calling for an illusory peace through brute force, spreading destruction across the entire region.”

Ubaida urged mediators to pressure Israel to fulfill its commitments under phase one before any conversation about phase two — including disarmament — can take place. “The enemy is the one who undermines the agreement,” he said.

Since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas and Israel have repeatedly accused each other of violating its terms, with no resolution to the sequencing dispute in sight.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)