Politics

Demands for Hamas to disarm have been rebuffed. What next?

There are competing visions for Gaza, from a ‘riviera’ without Palestinians to a rebuilt enclave run by Palestinians for Palestinians. Until then, thousands are still being killed.

SAID KHATIB / AFP

Masked men from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas

Demands for Hamas to disarm have been rebuffed. What next?

Amr Emam

last update on 25 Apr 2025

Hamas’s refusal to disarm is both logical and expected, given that its acquiescence to such a demand would open the door to its total collapse by removing its raison d’être as a resistance movement.

The demand, reportedly made during a recent round of ceasefire talks by Egyptian mediators, has triggered a fierce debate. Resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and promising to liberate these territories have been the movement’s rallying cry since its founding in 1987.

Armed resistance has both justified its practices and won it support externally over the years, including from Israel’s enemies. However, others believe Hamas’s weaponry has brought the Palestinian people nothing but calamity, citing its attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 as a case in point.

So far, Israel has killed 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, injured over 110,000 and decimated around 80% of the coastal enclave. Gaza’s prospects are grim. US President Donald Trump, a keen ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wants not to save it but to take it over and turn it into a “riviera”, forcing its residents to leave.

Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP — People erect tents amidst the rubble of destroyed buildings as displaced Palestinians return to the northern areas of the Gaza Strip in Jabalia on January 23, 2025, during a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was reached.

Arguing for arms

Egypt has denied demanding that Hamas disarm during talks, attributing this diktat to Israel. But any voluntary disarmament would be welcomed by Cairo.

Ironically, Netanyahu might not want Hamas to disarm, having long used the movement’s militancy to aggravate Palestinian rifts, extending financial lifelines to Hamas by easing the flow of cash (which it used to re-arm and strengthen its grip on Gaza), before arguing that there was no credible Palestinian negotiating partner.

Today, Netanyahu is using Hamas's armed presence in Gaza to justify his campaign against the enclave, destroying everything from schools and hospitals to United Nations centres, mosques and churches, whilst hiding behind claims that he is targeting Hamas. By disarming and stepping down, Hamas would deprive Israel of this justification, and it would also open the door for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank (led by 88-year-old Mahmoud Abbas) to run Gaza.

According to reports, Hamas was open to the PA assuming control of Gaza in recent days, within truce talks with mediators from Egypt and Qatar. The proposal, revealed by an unnamed senior Palestinian official, envisages a truce of up to seven years, the release of all Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an end to the war, and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Egypt has denied demanding that Hamas disarm during talks, attributing this diktat to Israel. But any voluntary disarmament would be welcomed by Cairo

PA control in Gaza would create the territorial and political unity required for a Palestinian state, which aligns with Egypt's vision, and Cairo has suggested the formation of a committee of non-partisan Palestinian technocrats to run Gaza in preparation for this. This would not involve or include Hamas.

Ever since Hamas came to power in Gaza in June 2007, its presence has been a problem for Egypt. It has built a network of tunnels into Sinai to bypass the siege and used them to smuggle in fuel, food, and construction materials.

The same tunnels were used by Islamic State (IS) terrorists battling the Egyptian army and police in Sinai to sneak into Gaza for medical treatment and provisions. After Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power in 2014, significant efforts were made to demolish this tunnel network.

That Hamas is an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood—a movement Egypt's current leaders brand as "terrorist"—is another reason for Cairo's disdain for the group. It was el-Sisi who, as army chief during the democratically-elected government of Mohamed Morsi, led a military coup in 2013 that overthrew the country's first Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated president. El-Sisi has been president ever since.

Mohammed ABED / AFP — The head of Gaza's Hamas government, Ismail Haniya, celebrates in Gaza City after the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsi, was declared the winner of the Egyptian elections, on June 24, 2012.

Tough decisions

Undoubtedly, Hamas will need to make tough decisions in the coming days and weeks. By clinging to its arms and maintaining its rule over Gaza, it gives Israel an excuse to keep bombing. Staying would also smother hopes of a Palestinian reconciliation. Hamas can either sacrifice Palestinian national interests or its own.

If the group prioritises the former and deprives Israel of the justification for bombing Gaza, Hamas may be totally destroyed. To prevent that, Hamas will need to rebrand itself by becoming a political party with a programme that addresses the social, economic, and security problems of all Palestinians.

Is it able or ready to make such a shift? The jury is out. Regardless, Palestinians need leadership. This is a crucial time. Far-right politicians in Israel, who are in the ascendency, want to annex the West Bank, relying on Trump's support to do so. He is likely to give it.

Israel's far-right government also advances the idea of wiping Gaza from the map to pave the way for Trump's "riviera". A rival idea for Gaza, pushed by Egypt and others, is to rebuild Gaza without displacing anyone. The decisions and actions of Hamas will, to a large extent, dictate what happens next. Time is of the essence.

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