by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief
(Worthy News) – Senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Sunday reaffirmed the terrorist group’s refusal to disarm, rejecting demands from U.S. President Donald Trump and vowing to continue the fight against Israel.
Speaking at the 17th Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, Qatar, Mashaal said Hamas would not lay down its weapons during Phase 2 of Trump’s U.S.-backed peace plan, which calls for the group’s disarmament and the deployment of an international stabilization force in Gaza.
“As long as our people are under occupation, talk of disarmament is an attempt to make their elimination easier,” Mashaal said, adding that Hamas would not accept being held accountable for the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks it led against southern Israel. He described armed “resistance” as the right of what he called occupied peoples and again vowed to defeat Israel, calling the Jewish state an “existential threat.”
Mashaal praised the Oct. 7 massacre, which left about 1,200 people dead and 251 taken hostage, claiming it forced renewed international focus on the Palestinian issue. He also rejected the U.S.-supported National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a proposed transitional body designed to exclude Hamas, denouncing what he termed “foreign rule” over the Strip.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned the Al Jazeera Forum as a “gathering of jihadists and their support staff.” Trump has warned that Hamas would face swift destruction if it refuses to disarm, saying in January that the group had agreed in principle to give up its weapons under his plan—claims Hamas leaders, including Mashaal and senior figure Musa Abu Marzouk, have repeatedly denied.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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