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In a bold move that underlines the complexities of Middle Eastern diplomacy, Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have both declined to commit to disarming, challenging the peace initiative brokered by President Donald Trump. Despite having initially accepted the terms, a senior Hamas representative conveyed to Reuters that he could not definitively say “yes or no” to the idea of giving up weapons. Meanwhile, an Islamic Jihad leader criticized Trump’s efforts on Al Jazeera, suggesting that disarmament had not been on the agenda and that the U.S. president was essentially “negotiating with himself.”
The resolute stances taken by these groups not only highlight the precariousness of the week-old ceasefire but also indicate their intent to stay armed indefinitely. This stance is in direct contradiction to longstanding demands from Israel, which these groups aim to leverage for political gains.
During an interview with Reuters, Mohammed Nazzal, a member of the Hamas politburo, was questioned explicitly about the possibility of disarmament. His response, “I can’t answer with a yes or no,” was a startling admission given that disarmament is a core component of Trump’s peace plan, which Hamas had only recently agreed to.
Nazzal went further to question the very premise of disarmament, asking, “The disarmament project you’re talking about, what does it mean? To whom will the weapons be handed over?” This indicates that Hamas views the issue as a theoretical discussion rather than a tangible obligation.
From Doha, where Hamas’s political leadership is based, Nazzal made it clear that Hamas intends to maintain its armed presence in Gaza indefinitely. “On the ground, Hamas will be present,” he declared, directly opposing Trump’s plan that envisages transferring security responsibilities to a technocratic civilian administration under international supervision.
Nazzal also indicated that Hamas is linking any long-term peace to the achievement of Palestinian statehood, a stance that diverges from Trump’s framework. He mentioned that the group might agree to a ceasefire lasting up to five years, but only if Palestinians are given “horizons and hope” for statehood. This positions disarmament as a subject for negotiation only after significant political concessions, rather than as an immediate step towards ending the conflict.
Nazzal also revealed Hamas is conditioning any long-term peace on achieving statehood first — the opposite of Trump’s framework. The Hamas official said the group would accept up to a five-year ceasefire but only if Palestinians receive “horizons and hope” for statehood, positioning disarmament as something to negotiate only after major political concessions rather than an immediate requirement for ending the war.
Just one day before Nazzal’s interview, Palestinian Islamic Jihad went even further — flatly denying disarmament was ever part of the negotiations at all.
“Hamas and the resistance have not agreed to disarm. On the contrary, they declared before, during, and after the negotiations, that this issue had not been discussed at all,” Islamic Jihad Deputy Secretary-General Muhammad Al-Hindi told Al Jazeera, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Al-Hindi’s claim directly contradicts Trump’s repeated public statements that Hamas committed to disarming as a condition of the ceasefire. The Islamic Jihad deputy secretary-general declared flatly that the weapons “belong to the Palestinian people, and they will not be surrendered before there is a Palestinian state” — making statehood a precondition for even considering disarmament.
The Islamic Jihad leader then mocked Trump personally, accusing him of conducting sham negotiations. “[Trump] is negotiating with himself, it seems,” Al-Hindi said. “The negotiations were being held between the Americans and the Israelis all the time, and then the mediators would be informed, and they would pass the information to Hamas and the resistance factions.”
Al-Hindi dismissed Trump as fundamentally ignorant of the region. “He does not understand the history, beliefs, and culture of the region,” the Islamic Jihad official claimed, adding that Trump cares only about “deals and investments.” Al-Hindi also rewrote history entirely, claiming “Islam has been in the region for less than 1,400 years. Where was Israel 3,000 years ago? It existed for a little more than 70 years” — erasing millennia of Jewish civilization in the land of Israel.
The dual refusals fly directly in the face of the peace agreement Trump announced Monday at the signing ceremony in Egypt. “Gaza’s reconstruction requires that it be demilitarized and that a new, honest civilian police force must be allowed to create a safe condition for the people in Gaza,” Trump declared, making disarmament an explicit precondition for rebuilding. The 20-point plan requires Hamas to return all hostages — including all bodies of those killed in captivity — before disarming and relinquishing all governance to an internationally supervised technocratic committee.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded to Nazzal’s refusal by making clear that compliance is mandatory. “Hamas is supposed to release all hostages in stage 1. It has not. Hamas knows where the bodies of our hostages are,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement to Reuters. “Hamas are to be disarmed under this agreement. No ifs, no buts. They are running out of time.”
On the same day Al-Hindi claimed disarmament was never discussed, Trump warned the terror groups that giving up weapons is non-negotiable. “They will disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently,” Trump said Tuesday.
Even as both terror groups refused to commit to disarming, Hamas has been executing Palestinians and brutally consolidating power across Gaza — actions Nazzal defended in his Reuters interview while simultaneously arguing Hamas should remain armed.
Within hours of the ceasefire taking effect on Monday, Hamas executed alleged collaborators on the streets of Gaza City, blindfolding men accused of working with Israel, forcing them to kneel, and shooting them at point-blank range in broad daylight. Nazzal dismissed the killings as “exceptional measures” taken during wartime.
But the executions were only the beginning. Reuters reported, citing Palestinian security sources, that Hamas killed over 30 people it labeled “gang” members as the terror group reasserts control throughout Gaza. Hamas’s so-called “internal security forces” have been conducting what the group describes as a “wide-scale field campaign across all areas of the Gaza Strip, from north to south, to locate and arrest collaborators and informants” — a reign of terror targeting anyone suspected of cooperation with Israel.
Hamas has also been waging violent battles with the Doghmush clan and other rival factions competing for control as Israeli forces withdraw. One pro-Hamas social media influencer known as “Mr. Fafo” was killed by rivals in the chaos.
Beyond the killings, Hamas has brazenly violated the ceasefire by delivering the wrong bodies to Israel instead of returning hostages as required.
Israel reacted with fury on Wednesday after forensic testing revealed that one body Hamas delivered through the Red Cross was not an Israeli hostage at all but rather a dead Palestinian from Gaza. Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas committed to returning the bodies of 28 hostages who died or were murdered during captivity. As of Thursday, Hamas had turned over only ten bodies — including the misidentified Palestinian corpse passed off as an Israeli hostage — leaving 19 bodies still in the terror group’s custody.
“It is confirmed the body is not of a hostage,” said Shosh Bedrosian, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office. “Hamas is required to uphold its commitments and return all our hostages. We will not compromise on this.”
Hamas pulled the same deception before — delivering a Palestinian corpse in February instead of the body of Shiri Bibas, mother of the Bibas children who were also murdered in Hamas captivity.
Nazzal told Reuters that Hamas has no interest in keeping the bodies and claimed the group is experiencing “technical problems” recovering them, saying Hamas needs specialist equipment to locate the remains. Families of the hostages have demanded that Israel suspend the next phase of the ceasefire until Hamas returns all bodies as agreed.
On Thursday — one day after Nazzal’s interview and two days after Al-Hindi’s rejection — Trump escalated his ultimatum in response to Hamas’s continued killings and violations.
“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The president also told reporters Thursday he expects Hamas to honor its word. “We have a commitment from them and I assume they’re going to honor their commitment,” Trump said.
Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have now made explicit they will not disarm until Palestinian statehood is achieved — inverting Trump’s framework entirely by demanding political concessions before security guarantees instead of the reverse.
That position is fundamentally irreconcilable with both Israel’s core security requirements and Trump’s peace plan, which makes immediate disarmament a precondition for any reconstruction or governance transition. Their defiance now threatens to collapse the agreement altogether — and Trump has made clear that further violations will be met with force.
