Hamas never agreed to lay down arms in truce talks: Official
A senior Hamas official says the Palestinian resistance group never agreed to surrender its weapons in the course of indirect ceasefire talks that brought an end to Israel’s regime’s two-year-long genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Mousa Abu Marzook made the remarks in an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera television network on Wednesday, two days after US President Donald Trump called on Hamas to follow through on what he called the group’s commitment to disarm.
"Hamas has never agreed to hand over its weapons in any form. Hamas agreed to a framework plan to end the war. The issue of handing over weapons was not discussed at all,” Marzook said.
He also emphasized that all arrangements planned in Gaza must happen with Hamas' consent.
The US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal took effect on October 10, 2025. The first phase began with the exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian abductees, as well as the withdrawal of the occupation forces to the so-called yellow line, the lethal ceasefire boundary in Gaza.
Although Hamas fulfilled all its obligations, Israel neither stopped its deadly attacks on Gaza nor allowed the free entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged territory.
The second phase, which was announced earlier this month, involved the gradual withdrawal of Israeli soldiers, who occupy more than half of the Gaza Strip, and the deployment of an international force.
On Monday, the Israeli military announced that the remains of the last captive in Gaza, Ran Gvili, had been recovered.
Also in his interview, Marzook said that about a month ago, Hamas had provided the Gaza truce mediators with information about the location of Gvili’s body.
The handover of Israeli captives, living and dead, to the Zionist regime was based on an agreement with Hamas conditions, thus, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not brag about the issue, he added.
Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, but it failed to achieve its declared objectives despite killing at least 71,667 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 171,343 others.
“We are obliged to underscore yet again: Israel is not the sovereign in the Palestinian territory. This illegal occupation has no rights whatsoever in Occupied Palestine, including in Jerusalem.
— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) January 28, 2026
The ceasefire’s permanence and success requires that Israel cease trying to dictate… pic.twitter.com/ea62K2ayUi
During a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Palestine’s UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour warned that an “unprecedented catastrophe” was unfolding in Gaza.
“The suffering of Palestinian civilians — men, women and children — must end with equal urgency,” he said, urging the full implementation of truce obligations, an immediate end to the killings, and unrestricted humanitarian access to Gaza.
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Hamas never agreed to lay down arms in truce talks: Official
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