Hamas has dismissed assertions that it ever agreed to surrender its weapons during indirect truce negotiations that brought a halt to the two-year genocidal war on Gaza. Speaking amid renewed political pressure from Washington, senior figures within the movement insist that disarmament was never tabled and that the talks focused solely on ending the violence and setting terms for a broader arrangement acceptable to all parties involved.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas’s political leadership, said the group accepted only a general framework to stop the genocidal war, stressing that the question of weapons “was not raised in any form”. He added that any future arrangements concerning Gaza would require Hamas’s consent, pushing back against claims that the movement had committed to conditions it says were never discussed. His remarks came days after renewed calls from US leaders urging Hamas to honour what they described as prior understandings.

The ceasefire, which took effect in October 2025, began with an exchange involving Israeli prisoners and Palestinians seized by Israeli forces, alongside a partial withdrawal of occupying troops to a designated line inside Gaza. Hamas maintains it fulfilled all obligations under the agreement, while accusing Israel of continuing lethal operations and restricting the flow of humanitarian assistance into the besieged territory, despite the formal truce.

A second phase, announced earlier this month, was meant to include a gradual pullback of Israeli forces still occupying more than half of Gaza and the deployment of an international presence. Developments on the ground, however, have lagged behind these commitments. Israeli authorities recently confirmed the recovery of the body of the last Israeli prisoner in Gaza, information Hamas says it had already shared with mediators weeks earlier.

Abu Marzouk reiterated that any discussion of disarmament is inseparable from ending the occupation itself, arguing that resistance cannot be divorced from the political reality imposed on Palestinians. As the humanitarian crisis deepens, Palestinian representatives at the United Nations have warned that Gaza is facing an unprecedented catastrophe, calling for the full implementation of the truce, an immediate end to mass killing, and unrestricted access for aid to reach civilians.