Asked if Hamas would give up its arms, Nazzal said: “I can’t answer with a yes or no. Frankly, it depends on the nature of the project. The disarmament project you’re talking about, what does it mean? To whom will the weapons be handed over?”
Arab diplomats previously told Middle East Eye that mediators were in discussions with Hamas about turning its weapons over to Arab peacekeepers or locking up long-range weapons such as missiles instead of destroying them.
US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan calls for Hamas’s demilitarisation. It also calls for a complete staged Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The plan doesn’t provide a timeline for either step.
Nazzal stated Hamas will have a “clear” and definitive answer when they get to the negotiating table for phase two of the deal, and that other Palestinian groups would need to be consulted. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Islamic Jihad both operate in Gaza.
Nazzal added that Hamas was looking for a three to five-year window for the ceasefire so that Gaza could be rebuilt for civilian purposes. His comments were the first time Hamas has publicly put a timeline on its expectations for the deal, and he was pressed by Reuters whether that prediction meant the group was buying time to rearm for another war.
“The goal is not to prepare for the next war – the goal is that we want a truce in which we rebuild the Gaza Strip because the average years needed to rebuild the Gaza Strip is at least five years, and I don’t want to say less or more, but this is the average,” he stated in response to the question.
“The priority for us in this period that we are putting forward is to build the Gaza Strip and return the Gaza Strip to normal civilian life, this is our priority,” he said.
“But if there are parties that want guarantees for the future after this period of time, then these countries need to offer real hope to the Palestinian people,” he added.
“The Palestinian people want an independent Palestinian state.”
The text of Trump’s 20-point plan says that Hamas will have no role in Gaza’s future governance, but offers members amnesty.
It calls for a body of technocratic Palestinians to run Gaza, overseen by a so-called “board of peace” chaired by Trump. The plan includes some soft language that says the Palestinian Authority may take over Gaza after unspecified reforms. It provides a brief mention of a potential Palestinian state.
On the ground, Hamas has demonstrated that it remains well-organised. Hamas security forces deployed throughout Gaza after the ceasefire. Trump himself said he approved of Hamas deploying to prevent crime, but then said he wanted the group to disarm.
Asked about the deployments, Nazzal said: ”This is a transitional phase. In a civil sense, there will be a technocratic administration as I said. On the ground, Hamas will be present,” he said.
He said after the transitional phase, there should be Palestinian elections.
Hamas has governed Gaza since 2007. Fighting between Hamas and its rival Fatah broke out after the former swept to power in Palestinian legislative elections the year before. In the end, Hamas consolidated its hold over Gaza, and Fatah in the occupied West Bank through the Palestinian Authority.
Reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas have been ongoing for years, but there has been little progress on mending ties to potentially stage fresh elections.
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