Israel says Hamas ‘will be disarmed’ after group proposes weapons freeze

Rain has flooded Gaza tents and a baby died of exposure, medics say

DOHA/GAZA: Israel said on Thursday that Hamas “will be disarmed” as part of the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza, after a top leader from the Islamist movement suggested a weapons freeze.

“There will be no future for Hamas under the 20-point plan. The terror group will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarised,” the Israeli official told AFP.

Hamas’s Khaled Meshaal told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the militant group is open to a weapons “freeze,” but rejects the demand for disarmament put forward in US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza.

A top Hamas leader told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the militant group is open to a weapons “freeze,” but rejects the demand for disarmament put forward in the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza.

“The idea of total disarmament is unacceptable to the resistance (Hamas). What is being proposed is a freeze, or storage (of weapons)… to provide guarantees against any military escalation from Gaza with the Israeli occupation,” said Khaled Meshaal in an interview aired Wednesday.

“This is the idea we’re discussing with the mediators, and I believe that with pragmatic American thinking… such a vision could be agreed upon with the US administration,” he said.

The US-sponsored ceasefire deal, in effect since October 10, halted the war that began after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But it remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of breaches.

The agreement is composed of three phases. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently indicated that it was about to enter the second phase.

Under that phase Israeli troops would further withdraw from their positions in Gaza and be replaced by an international stabilization force (ISF), while Hamas would lay down its weapons.

Netanyahu is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump in the US later this month to discuss the steps forward in the truce.

But the Palestinian militant group has indicated it would not agree to giving up its arsenal.

“Disarmament for a Palestinian means stripping away his very soul. Let’s achieve that goal another way,” Meshaal added.

In the first phase of the deal Palestinian militants committed to releasing the remaining 48 living and dead captives held in the territory. All of the hostages have so far been released except for one body.

In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.

As for the international peacekeeping force, Meshaal said the group was open to its deployment along Gaza’s border with Israel, but would not agree to it operating inside the Palestinian territory, calling such a plan an “occupation.”

“We have no objection to international forces or international stabilization forces being deployed along the border, like UNIFIL,” he said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.

“They would separate Gaza from the occupation,” he added, referring to Israel.

“As for the presence of international forces inside Gaza, in Palestinian culture and consciousness that means an occupying force.”

Mediators as well as Arab and Islamic nations, he said, could act as “guarantors” that there would be no escalation originating from inside Gaza.

“The danger comes from the Zionist entity, not from Gaza,” he added, referring to Israel.

Meanwhile, Torrential rain swept across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, flooding hundreds of tents sheltering families displaced by two years of war, and leading to the death of a baby girl due to exposure, local health officials said.

Medics said eight-month-old Rahaf Abu Jazar died of exposure to cold after water inundated her family’s tent in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave.

Weeping and holding Rahaf in her hands, her mother Hejar Abu Jazar said she had fed the girl before they went to sleep.

“When we woke up, we found the rain over her and the wind on her, and the girl died of cold suddenly,” she told Reuters.

“There was nothing wrong with her. Oh, the fire in my heart, the fire in my heart, oh my life,” she said in tears.

Gaza lacks equipment to cope with deluge due to the war

Municipal and civil defense officials said they were unable to cope with the storm because of fuel shortages and damage to equipment. They said Israel destroyed hundreds of vehicles, including bulldozers and others used to pump water, during the war, which displaced most of the over two million population and left much of Gaza in ruins.

The civil defense service said most of the tent encampments across the enclave were flooded, and it received more than 2,500 calls for help. Some of the belongings of displaced people were seen floating on top of pools of rainwater that filled the alleys of the tent encampments.

A UN report said 761 displacement sites hosting about 850,000 people are at high risk of flooding and thousands of people had moved in anticipation of heavy rain.

UN and Palestinian officials said at least 300,000 new tents are urgently needed for the roughly 1.5 million people still displaced. Most existing shelters are worn out or made of thin plastic and cloth sheeting.

Gazans have resorted to ripping out iron rods from the debris of bombed houses and using them to prop up tents or to sell for a few dollars.

A ceasefire has broadly held since October, but the war destroyed much of Gaza’s infrastructure, leaving grim living conditions.

Aid shortages

Hamas-led authorities say Israel is not allowing in as much aid as promised under the truce. Aid agencies say Israel is blocking essential items. Israel says it is meeting its obligations and accuses agencies of inefficiency and failing to prevent theft by Hamas, which the group denies.

“We hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for exposing displaced families to climate hazards as it continues closing crossings and preventing the entry of relief items and shelter materials,” said Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said flooded streets and soaked tents are worsening already dire conditions.

“Cold, overcrowded and unsanitary environments heighten the risk of illness and infection,” it said on X.

“This suffering could be prevented by unhindered humanitarian aid, including medical support and proper shelter,” it added.

In Gaza City, three houses collapsed as a result of the rainstorm in areas that had been devastated by Israeli bombardment, the civil emergency service said.

The October 10 ceasefire has enabled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to Gaza City’s ruins. Israel has pulled troops back from city positions, and aid flows have increased.

But violence has not completely halted. Palestinian health authorities say Israeli forces have killed 383 people in strikes in Gaza since the truce. Israel says three of its soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began, and it has attacked scores of fighters.

On Thursday, medics said two Palestinian women were killed, and some other people were wounded in Israeli tank shelling in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military didn’t offer immediate comment. AFP