Hamas responds to deadline for disarming

Senior Hamas official denounces former UN official leading Board of Peace, says the US demand for Hamas to disarm has been “rejected.”

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

A senior Hamas official explicitly rejected the Trump administration’s demand that the terror group surrender its weapons, while criticizing the US-backed Board of Peace, accusing it of backing Israeli interests.

On Sunday, the left-wing blog Drop Site News published a lengthy interview with Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas politburo, amid warnings from Israeli leaders that the terror group will soon face a two-month deadline for disarming.

President Donald Trump also recently reiterated his demand that Hamas fulfill its commitments under the October ceasefire agreement, including the surrender of its arsenal.

“Very importantly, Hamas must uphold its commitment to Full and Immediate Demilitarization,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Sunday.

In perhaps the most explicit public signal that the terror group does not intend to cooperate with the Trump administration’s disarmament plan, Naim said that the demand has been “rejected.”

“Palestinian resistance and its weapons are a legitimate right, and disarmament is rejected and will not be accepted by any Palestinian,” said Naim.

“The problem is fundamentally political, not security-based, and its solution lies not in the weapons of the resistance but in [ending] the Zionist occupation.”

In an apparent rejection of President Trump’s past comments regarding the Gaza Strip and plans to rehabilitate the area via the Board of Peace, Naim added that Gaza “is not a real-estate project; it is an integral part of the Palestinian homeland.”

Naim also took aim at Nickolay Mladenov, the former Bulgarian minister who served as the United Nations envoy to the Middle East until the end of 2020.

Last month, Mladenov was tapped to serve as director-general of the Board of Peace.

Recently, Mladenov warned that if Hamas refuses to disarm, the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas would likely resume.

“The first risk is that we are not going to implement the second phase of the ceasefire, but we’re going to go to the second phase of the war and that is a serious threat,” Mladenov said.

Naim called Mladenov’s warning a “disgrace,” and accused the former UN special coordinator of acting as “a spokesperson for the Israeli government.”