by Khaled Abu Toameh
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21572/hamas-weapons
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Hamas wants to keep its weapons so that it could kill even those Jews who "hide behind stones and trees." Hamas also wants to hold on to its weapons so that it can continue to oppress Palestinians who dare to speak out against the terrorist group. This old but reliable method of control is how Hamas has managed to remain in power for the past two decades.
Any deal that allows Hamas to keep its arsenal of weapons is simply a green light to the Islamists to pursue their jihad against Israel. It is a waste of time to demand that Hamas just be removed from power in the Gaza Strip.
The Trump administration actually needs to place the issue of disarming Hamas and all the Palestinian terrorist groups not among its demands, but at the top.

As the war in the Gaza Strip is about to enter its 20th month, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group has once again repeated its refusal to disarm. It says the weapons are needed to continue its fight against Israel. Those who believe that Hamas would ever agree to lay down its weapons are living in a dream world. There is, unfortunately, only one way to convince Hamas to disarm: military force.
Recently, two senior Hamas officials, Mahmoud Mardawi and Bassam Naim, announced their group's absolute rejection of any proposal related to laying down its weapons. They said that other Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip also reject any plan to disarm.
"The [Palestinian] resistance's weapons represent the life of the Palestinian people and cannot be relinquished under any circumstances," Mardawi said in a statement to Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV station. Hamas, he added, "will not negotiate over its weapons, or those who carry them, at any stage. The mere entry into a discussion about this issue is completely unacceptable."
Naim also told the TV station that Hamas would not lay down its weapons and that the "resistance will continue as long as there is an [Israeli] occupation."
Israel, however, effectively ended its "occupation" of the Gaza Strip in 2005, when it totally withdrew from the entire coastal strip. That evacuation, however, did not stop Hamas from continuing its campaign of terrorism against Israel, including launching rockets and missiles towards Israeli cities and towns. Hamas continued to attack Israel because it does not believe in Israel's right to exist and considers all the land stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea "occupied territories." Hamas was not established to end the Israeli "occupation" of the Gaza Strip. Hamas was created with the sole purpose of eliminating Israel and replacing it with an Islamist state.
Article 7 of the Hamas charter describes the Jews living in Israel as "invaders" and vows to launch a jihad (holy war) against them:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement [Hamas} is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders. It goes back to 1939, to the emergence of the martyr Izz al-Din al Kissam and his brethren the fighters, members of Moslem Brotherhood. It goes on to reach out and become one with another chain that includes the struggle of the Palestinians and Moslem Brotherhood in the 1948 war and the Jihad operations of the Moslem Brotherhood in 1968 and after...
"[T]he Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realization of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The prophet [Mohammed], Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: 'The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"
Article 11 of the charter states:
"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. Neither a single Arab country nor all Arab countries, neither any king or president, nor all the kings and presidents, neither any organization nor all of them, be they Palestinian or Arab, possess the right to do that."
Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, believes that it is the duty of every Muslim to engage in jihad against Israel. As far as Hamas is concerned, according to its covenant:
"[L]iberation of Palestine [a euphemism for the destruction of Israel] is then an individual duty for very Moslem wherever he may be. On this basis, the problem should be viewed. This should be realised by every Moslem.... It is necessary to instill in the minds of the Moslem generations that the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis. "
There is, in reality, no difference between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Hamas is not so much an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood as an extention of it. This linkage is why the Trump administration needs to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
We have seen how Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt, Jordan and other Arab countries have come out in support of Hamas, especially after its October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, which resulted in the murder of 1,200 Israelis and the injury of thousands. Another 251 Israelis were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 59 – dead and alive – are still held as hostages.
Hamas sees no difference between an Israeli soldier and an Israeli civilian. To Hamas, everyone in Israel is a "Zionist invader." This view is why Hamas has been targeting Jews not only in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but also in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and other Israeli cities.
Hamas wants to keep its weapons so that it could kill even those Jews who "hide behind stones and trees." Hamas also wants to hold on to its weapons so that it can continue to oppress Palestinians who dare to speak out against the terrorist group. This old but reliable method of control is how Hamas has managed to remain in power for the past two decades.
Any deal that allows Hamas to keep its arsenal of weapons is simply a green light to the Islamists to pursue their jihad against Israel. It is a waste of time to demand that Hamas just be removed from power in the Gaza Strip.
The Trump administration actually needs to place the issue of disarming Hamas and all the Palestinian terrorist groups not among its demands, but at the top.
Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.
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Comment on this item
28 Reader Comments
bert33 • Apr 27, 2025 at 00:01
Get the people on the bus to Cairo, then go find and implode the tunnels, then fence the place off, and start dropping the remaining buildings. When everything is flat, call the engineers, and haul the garbage to a landfill, when that is done, tear out the roads and other infrastructure, and make the place a nature preserve. Big sign: KEEP OUT. End the festivities this year by doing a thorough job. Real straightforward, real simple. They can take their machine guns with them to Egypt, just woe betide they aim and fire at Israel. Woe betide.
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Steve Todd • Apr 26, 2025 at 23:03
Looking at the photo of terrorists in the vehicle, it clearly shows the children to terrorists ratio of 1 per 2. Based on that .for every child killed, at least 2 terrorists are killed. I can live with that. Can the decent Gazan live with it ???
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cammo99 • Apr 25, 2025 at 12:30
Is this a realistic way to approach disarmament, how do you stop some groups from acquiring weapons when the world is stuffed to the gills with them and the only thing restricting more is the expense of creating smarter weapons. If the Hotouhi's need to be disarmed we need a lot more weapons because they are backed by China and Iran etc. But who is going to blink first?
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Sandra Smith cammo99 • Apr 26, 2025 at 22:57
Make it too expensive to provide them weapons.
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Jagdish N Singh • Apr 25, 2025 at 08:00
One does not have to be a genius to figure out why Hamas would long to keep their weapons . The pattern is: they have had such instruments to kill the Jews and subdue their own . The Trump administration must aim at keeping the barbarians completely disarmed if it really seeks to establish peace in the region.
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Sandra Smith Jagdish N Singh • Apr 26, 2025 at 22:56
Correct.
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Jagdish N Singh Sandra Smith • Apr 27, 2025 at 01:03
Thanks.
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Sandra Smith Jagdish N Singh • Apr 27, 2025 at 06:38
You already said what I was thinking. I just affirmed it.
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TRM • Apr 24, 2025 at 13:09
Disarming Hamas will no doubt be easy--like taking candy from a gorilla.
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Robert Goldman • Apr 24, 2025 at 10:13
Hamas must be erased from this planet completely, no trace, not even an ash just green grass where they once stood
I lost too many friends and acquaintances on kibbutz Nir Oz people I've known since 1980 people I worked with ate with laughed and even argued with. Hamas must die and be made into fertilizer.. that's it the woodchipper is hungry
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Allan Dobzyniak, M.D. • Apr 24, 2025 at 09:59
There can be no end to the radical Islamism without irradiating the disease that spawns it. An Iran flourishing on petro-dollars means no end to the cult-like fanaticism to irradiate the Western infidels. Imagine a nuclear armed Iran.
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Sandra Smith Allan Dobzyniak, M.D. • Apr 25, 2025 at 05:29
Not even close! There are Muslims strung all over the world, ALL of whom read and believe the SAME Quran and Hadiths, and follow the SAME sharia law! THAT means "no end" to the potential fundamental zealots. Nuking Iran is like slapping a bandaid on an hemmorrhage
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Allan Dobzyniak, M.D. Sandra Smith • Apr 25, 2025 at 17:07
This is fatalism without hope or solution. There must always be priorities when confronting a problem. Iran is a priority. True, the lifeblood of power for the Islamists is anti-Semitism and the need to eliminate the infidels that comprise western civilization. But there also exists a counterbalance to radical Islamism. Understanding what motivates the citizens of Iran and those other Muslims desiring to engage modernity and the benefits to human existence this can bring is paramount. The Abraham accords were an attempt to do this. I do believe that there is finally but still evolving understanding of the Islamist threat and a renewed focus on improved strategies to engage beyond "hope" combined with capitulation to this evil. Maybe I am naive, but there seems to be a growing change in the political climate of the world toward radical Islamism
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Sandra Smith Allan Dobzyniak, M.D. • Apr 26, 2025 at 22:59
Iran isn't the disease, only the "Typhoid Mary" carrier; Islam is the disease. We can't irradiate 1/4 of the world's population, without doing significant harm to the other 3/4.
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Sandra Smith Allan Dobzyniak, M.D. • Apr 26, 2025 at 23:02
Yhvh already provided the "cure"; His name is Yeshua, and His return will attend to that as well as the rest of the sin problems rampant on Earth today.
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Duane • Apr 24, 2025 at 09:29
Hamas should not even be allowed to exist in any fashion.
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Sandra Smith • Apr 24, 2025 at 09:21
Any "deal" that allows "Palestinians" who are not already Israeli citizens to remain within the Yhvh God given land of Israel, especially if such persons are armed and practitioners of Islam, must be declared invalid. Muslims will not give up their conquest and genocide of Jews, then Christians and all others. Therefore, they cannot remain in proximity to any other such humans. Look at the attack in Kashmir; it is of the SAME "stuff" as what is going on in Israel, exactly. Yet Indians are not Jews or Christians, for the most part; they are Hindus. Until and unless they choose to relinquish arms and Islam, they MUST be sequestered in lands where they may do with each other as they will, but kept away from all others, for the safety of all. No nation's going to sit still and be slaughtered simply for not accepting the ideology of 1 people group.
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Hamish MacDonald Sandra Smith • Apr 24, 2025 at 22:39
Thank you Sandra for your inspiring comment. I must concur.
Islam can never be trusted- you don't talk to the devil the devil only lies.
Taqiyya is the telling of lies to further Islam, and Muslims are good at it. A critical juncture which you have put in so an articulate way is that of Jihad. Every move to migrate is part of Jihad. Israelis along with Christians make the same mistake of thinking that their goodwill will be reciprocated. This is never the case.
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Sandra Smith Hamish MacDonald • Apr 25, 2025 at 05:34
Until the rest of humanity finally catches on, it will continue to be a threat to us all... I think I need a bigger hammer with which to pound that into very thick skulls!
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Harvey Radnor • Apr 24, 2025 at 08:25
Well stated article by Khaled. No occupation of Israel or anywhere else Hamas and fellow thugs only want to keep their weapons so they can carry on murdering Jews Christians and anyone else that stands in the way of their sick murderous agenda.
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Edward C. Stengel • Apr 24, 2025 at 08:19
Not only must Hamas not be allowed to keep its weapons, but every member of Hamas must be brought to justice for war crimes against Israel. That way Israel can keep the Palestinians from having their own state for at least another 50 years. Israel needs to conduct a Nuremberg-like trial against Hamas. First, it has to capture as many of the terrorists as it can, and then it has to hunt down the rest. That will take at least another 50 years. This will serve as a valid excuse for not talking about a 2-state solution for 50 years or more.
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Sandra Smith Edward C. Stengel • Apr 25, 2025 at 05:38
"Palestinians" are free to have their own state, just not in the land belonging to Israel, or the rest of the non Muslim world. Saudi, Jordan and Egypt have a lot of space not being used...
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tiki • Apr 24, 2025 at 08:14
If it goes according the plans of the "mediators" in Qatar & Egypt, this is precisely the goal.
The latest suggestion for a hostage "deal":
All Israeli hostages for a mutually agreed number of Palestinian prisoners.
A 5 year "truth" with Hamas.
A full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The initiation of the Gaza reconstruction process.
Lifting of the blockade imposed since 2007."
Hamas to declare "its commitment to a five-year ceasefire".
The terror group would no longer have ruling control of the Gaza Strip .
Not a word about disarmament and the 'vows & commitments' of Hamas can be taken with a grain of salt....except when it involves the destruction of Israel.
Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, believes that it is the duty of every Muslim to engage in jihad against Israel....**so does the PLO/PA, just uses different language to fool the gullible west.
Their strategy:
Good Cop (PLO/PA, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan etc.)
Bad Cop (Hamas, Hezbollah Islamic Jihad, Iran, etc.)
Bottom line:
They all want the same..."from the river to the sea....
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Sandra Smith tiki • Apr 25, 2025 at 05:40
Yeah...NO WAY! Their idea of commitment MIGHT last long enough for the ink to dry, maybe...
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VictorMc • Apr 24, 2025 at 07:00
I READ that only 25% of the tunnels have been demolished, even after all this military effort and lives lost. I have no idea where this 'truth' comes from, but when I read some articles, I find it extremely doubtful. "The first casulty of war is the truth" Aeychelus circa 300 BCE. They knew a thing or two those old Greeks.
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Edward C. Stengel VictorMc • Apr 24, 2025 at 22:24
Those tunnels are the key to Israel's victory. I've said from the very beginning of this war that Israel can't claim victory until those tunnels are destroyed. Even if every member of Hamas disappeared, by whatever means. as long as those tunnels continue to exist, another terrorist organization will be able to use them.
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Jan Hellsund • Apr 24, 2025 at 06:54
Don't demand that Hamas disarm, but make it interesting. Just aim for the center of the green headband. With almost 2,000 Israeli casualties versus almost 52,000 Hamas casualties it almost doesn't seem fair, so there should be some sort of challenge.
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Bettina • Apr 24, 2025 at 06:14
Is it too difficult for Israel to finally defeat this terrorist gang and expel them and their families from Gaza?
I can't believe they're still trying to negotiate with murderers and rapists. These criminals continue to torture and kill hostages, fire rockets at Israel, and, thanks to their supporters in the UN and the EU, taunt and threaten Jews all over the world. Even so-called "elite" universities in the US openly support the Holocaust committed in Israel on October 7, 2023.
What's stopping the Israeli government from finally ridding the Gaza terror hotspot of violence and declaring it Israeli territory? Even considering whether or not the criminals should be allowed to keep their weapons is almost beyond schizophrenic. Does anyone in political leadership really still seriously believe in a two-state solution and peaceful coexistence with a deeply anti-Semitic, radicalized society? This inconsistency will cost Israel dearly. And let's not forget the main sponsor of global terrorism, the mullah regime. Anyone who engages in dialogue with these criminals on equal terms will ultimately end up with chaos and the destruction of their society.
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