Israel says Hamas 'will be disarmed'

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 Palestinian Islamist movement suggested a weapons freeze.

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A MAN sits on the edge of a destroyed building in the Al-Saftawi suburb, west of Jabalia city, in the northern Gaza Strip this week.

(AFP)

The ceasefire, 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 violations.

Top Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera that the militant group was open to a weapons "freeze", but rejects the demand for total disarmament put forward in US President Donald Trump's plan for the Palestinian territory.

Shosh Bedrosian, spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister's office, said: "Israel will continue to follow the 20-point plan. There will be no Hamas inside of the Gaza Strip. Hamas will be disarmed. The prime minister says this will happen the easy way or the hard way."

The agreement is composed of three phases. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently indicated that he expected the second phase to begin soon.

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

The Palestinian militant group has indicated it would not agree to giving up its arsenal. "The idea of total disarmament is unacceptable to the resistance (Hamas)," Meshaal said on Wednesday. "What is being proposed is a freeze, or storage (of weapons) ... to provide guarantees against any military escalation from Gaza with the Israeli occupation," he added. "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.