Will Hamas actually give up its arms?
Hamas lead negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya claims that the terror group’s weapons are “linked to the presence of the occupation and aggression.”
Israel has demanded that Hamas disarm as part of the end of the two-year war, and the US has also insisted that the group will have to give up its weapons to move forward with its 20-point plan.
Al-Hayya asserts that “if the occupation ends, these weapons will be transferred to the state.”
It is not immediately clear what state the Hamas official is referring to, or if he was referencing the Palestinian administrative body that has yet to be formed.
It was also not clear how Al-Hayya was defining “the occupation,” and if he was referring to the existence of the State of Israel as a whole, which Palestinians and some Arab nations often simply refer to as an occupying power….
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Hamas looking for Israeli or other hostages bodies….
Hamas has expanded its search for bodies of hostages in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian group said Sunday, a day after Egypt deployed a team of experts and heavy equipment to help retrieve them.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which took effect on Oct. 10, Hamas is expected to return the remains of all Israeli hostages as soon as possible. Israel has agreed to return 15 bodies of Palestinians for each one.
Children and others watched the Egyptian equipment claw through the sand near badly damaged buildings in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Hamas has returned the remains of 15 hostages but hasn’t handed over any in five days. Israel has returned the bodies of 195 Palestinians, many of them unidentified.
More complicated steps lie ahead under the ceasefire plan, including the disarming of Hamas and the postwar governance of famine-stricken Gaza, where the U.N. and partners continue to urge Israel to allow in more humanitarian aid.
International media have been barred from Gaza aside from brief visits with Israel’s military, and Israel on Sunday said that hadn’t changed.
Trump watches 48-hour period ‘very closely’
Hamas’ chief in Gaza, Khalil al-Hayya, said the group started searching new areas for bodies of the remaining 13 hostages, according to comments the group shared Sunday.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned Saturday he was “watching very closely” to ensure Hamas returns more bodies in the next 48 hours. “Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” he wrote on social media.
Hamas has repeatedly said efforts to retrieve remains face challenges because of the massive destruction…..
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Some fighting continues…..
Donald Trump insists the war in Gaza is over. No, it isn’t. The violence is much reduced. Yet Israeli forces have reportedly killed about 100 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more since the 10 October ceasefire began. Food aid supplies are still heavily restricted. The occupation continues, in Gaza and the West Bank. US officials fear prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his accomplices may renege on the deal, as in the past.
Likewise, Hamas elements and rival gangs have kept fighting. The terrorist group is not disarming; Israeli forces have not fully withdrawn to the agreed lines. US-framed security, governance and reconstruction proposals remain vague, hypothetical and contentious. The war’s root causes, principally the denial of Palestinian sovereignty and statehood, are not addressed. Unless that changes, it will all kick off again, sooner or later…..
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