A senior Hamas leader on Sunday rejected calls for the group to disarm or accept outside control in Gaza, directly challenging demands from the United States and Israel and casting doubt on prospects for advancing the next phase of the ceasefire process.

Speaking at a conference in Doha, Khaled Mashaal said the group would not relinquish its weapons or submit to foreign oversight.

“Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept,” Mashaal said.

“As long as there is occupation, there is resistance,” he said. “Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation.”

Mashaal called on international bodies involved in Gaza’s postwar planning to adopt what he termed a “balanced approach” that would allow for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance for the territory’s roughly 2.2 million residents.

At the same time, he warned that Hamas would reject any arrangement involving external governance.

“We adhere to our national principles and reject the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or the return of a mandate in any form,” he said. “Palestinians are to govern Palestinians. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza and to Palestine. We will not accept foreign rule.”

The comments come as Israel and the United States continue to press for Hamas’s disarmament as part of negotiations over the future of Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump have both insisted that the group must give up its weapons in the near future as a condition for moving forward with the second phase of the ceasefire.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Hamas committed to laying down its arms and has warned the group of consequences if it fails to do so. Israeli officials have likewise framed disarmament as essential to preventing Hamas from reasserting military control over Gaza.

Publicly, however, Hamas has never agreed to surrender its arsenal.

Trump’s recently proposed 20-point plan for Gaza explicitly calls for the group’s disarmament. While Hamas issued a statement endorsing parts of the proposal, it included significant conditions and made no direct reference to giving up weapons.

Mashaal’s remarks appear to reinforce that position, signaling continued resistance to any settlement that limits Hamas’s military capabilities or places Gaza under international administration.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)