"Israel and Hamas may have agreed to the first phase of a United States-backed ceasefire deal, but contentious differences between the two sides still remain, particularly when it comes to the fate of the Palestinian group's weapons. Israel has long insisted that Hamas surrender all of its weapons if its two-year war on Gaza is to end, as well as demanding that the group relinquish governance of the Palestinian enclave and dissolve itself as an organisation."
"For its part, Hamas has publicly rejected calls to give up its weapons, but experts say that the group has expressed openness in private to hand over some of its arsenal. When it comes to disarmament, this is where you have seen the biggest shift in Hamas's position, said Hugh Lovatt, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). [Hamas officials] have said in private to interlocutors that the group may be open to a decommissioning process of Hamas's offensive weapons,"
Negotiations over Hamas's disarmament risk blocking a permanent end to the war in Gaza despite a possible first-phase ceasefire agreement. Israel demands that Hamas surrender all weapons, relinquish governance of Gaza, and dissolve as an organisation. Hamas publicly rejects full disarmament but has privately indicated potential openness to a decommissioning process for some offensive weapons. Disputes over the arsenal could torpedo the ceasefire and prompt renewed Israeli military action. International humanitarian law references an armed group's right to resist occupation, while Israel and Western allies have historically sought Palestinian disarmament as a precondition for peace.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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