Top Hamas leader rejects disarmament

He also says it will not accept foreign intervention in Palestinian territory

- 

DOHA - A senior Hamas leader said on Feb 8 that the Palestinian Islamist movement would neither surrender its weapons nor accept foreign intervention in Gaza, pushing back against US and Israeli demands.

“Criminalising the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept,” Mr Khaled Meshal said at a conference in Doha.

“As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation... something nations take pride in,” said Mr Meshal, who previously headed the group.

Hamas, an Islamist movement, has waged an armed struggle against what it sees as Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. It launched a deadly cross-border raid into Israel from Gaza on Oct 7, 2023, which triggered the latest war.