Senior Hamas officials gave mixed signals this week regarding the terror group’s willingness to implement the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, including the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
In an interview published on Tuesday by Russia’s Sputnik news site, former chief of the Hamas politburo Mousa Abu Marzouk said that while Hamas had agreed with other Gaza terror groups to accept the first phase of the 20-point peace plan, the second phase would require a far more “comprehensive” consensus among Palestinians.
“As for the second part of the plan: this is a broad Palestinian issue which Hamas cannot decide on alone,” Abu Marzouk said. “This part requires a comprehensive national consensus with the participation of all the factions, since it concerns matters with strategic implications.”
After hinting that Hamas could not move forward with the second phase of the deal – which would require it to hand over its weapons – Marzouk then demanded that Israel pay for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, a condition Israel would almost certainly reject.
“We believe that the occupation is primarily responsible for the destruction of the Gaza Strip, so it should bear the cost of reconstruction.”
However, a day earlier, Khalil al-Hayya, the current co-chairman of the Hamas politburo, took a more conciliatory position, telling Al-Qahira Al-Akhbariya that Hamas is committed to returning the bodies of all remaining Israeli hostages and adhering to the Gaza ceasefire.
“We are ready to recover and hand over all the bodies according to the agreement,” al-Hayya said. “We have no desire to keep anyone with us — let them return to their relatives, and our martyrs will also return and be buried with dignity.”
Al-Hayya emphasized that the US and other backers of the peace deal had assured Hamas “that the war in Gaza has ended.”
