Hamas mulling joining PLO, handing weapons over to Ramallah

Gaza terror group reportedly considering abandoning its military wing as part of a larger Palestinian rapprochement, which would include joining the PLO.

By World Israel News Staff

The Hamas terror organization is considering separating its political wing from its military wing, with the former becoming a member faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hamas officials speaking on condition of anonymity say.

The sources were cited by a report published in the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, telling the outlet that Hamas is reviewing a number of proposals aimed at implementing the second phase of the Trump administration’s Gaza peace deal.

While the US plan calls for an international peacekeeping force to oversee the demilitarization of Gaza and the disarming of Hamas, the Islamist terror group has thus far refused to hand over its weapons to non-Palestinian organizations, and has denounced the calls to deploy foreign peacekeepers to Gaza.

One of the alternatives being mulled by Hamas’ leaders would see the group dismantle its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, with the political wing of Hamas joining the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In this scenario, Hamas’ political wing would be integrated as a member faction of the PLO and a political entity within the Palestinian Authority.

Following Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007 and a leadership crisis in the PA, Hamas split from the Palestinian Authority, leaving the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria under separate de facto regimes.

Under the proposal mentioned in the report, Hamas would again be “capable of taking part in political, economic, social and general public life” in the Palestinian Authority, a Hamas source said.

The officials cited acknowledged that two years of war with Israel had left the terror group with diminished support inside the Gaza Strip, adding that by becoming an exclusively political organization it could enhance its standing within the PA.

The Hamas officials quoted in the report emphasized, however, that if the group’s military wing is dismantled, it would be done only within the framework of a broad Palestinian rapprochement, with control of Gaza handed over to other Palestinian factions and with Hamas’ arsenal given over to the PA.