Hamas signals willingness to disarm, but Israel may reject key condition : NPR

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Hamas is ready to lay down its arms for a period of up to 10 years. That’s what senior Hamas officials tell NPR as they prepare to negotiate the next stage of the Gaza ceasefire. NPR’s Daniel Estrin reports.

DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: A 20-minute drive from the skyscrapers of Doha’s dazzling city center is the suburb where Hamas’ top leadership is based.

ALL RIGHT. So it’s a beautiful street of beige buildings, villas, palm trees and decorated walls. And there’s a police officer in a car right out front.

Hamas security guards usher us into a living room with a Palestinian flag, a Hamas flag and a photo of the Jerusalem skyline on the wall. We meet with Hamas’ lead negotiator, Basem Naim (ph). He was sitting with Hamas officials in September when Israel attempted to kill them.

BASEM NAIM: We were about to end the meeting. At 3:45 p.m., we heard the first missile hit the compound. To be honest, we didn’t expect such an attack at that time.

ESTRIN: At that time, Hamas officials were meeting to review a U.S. ceasefire proposal they had received the day before. He and the other Hamas negotiators survived the airstrikes. The strikes hit an office they were in minutes earlier. He said they moved for safety. This failed Israeli strike led to an American success, leading the parties to agree to a ceasefire. Today, Hamas must hand over an additional body of Israeli hostages and then comes the next phase of the ceasefire with the disarmament of Hamas. Naim says Hamas is ready to negotiate on its weapons.

NAIM: We are ready to lay down these weapons. I mean, don’t use it for five, seven, ten years, until we’re attacked, because the second question is always: OK, the Palestinians need to be disarmed. And the other side?

ESTRIN: Naim says Hamas won’t disarm until there are negotiations for a Palestinian state. We have asked the White House and the Israeli government to respond. Neither commented on the details of Hamas’ offer, time-limited disarmament and the demand for negotiations towards a Palestinian state. A White House official said Gaza would be fully demilitarized in accordance with President Trump’s peace plan, and that the United States expects Hamas to honor the agreement. An Israeli official says Hamas will have no future under the plan. It will be disarmed and Gaza will be demilitarized. We asked Hamas officials about their decision to launch the attack, which killed around 1,200 people on October 7, two years ago, given the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Israeli reprisals. Naim said Hamas should not be held responsible for the devastation of the Israeli response.

NAIM: If you ask me what happened in those two years, it has nothing to do with October 7 because the story did not begin on October 7. And it has nothing to do with a state’s response. If someone decides to commit genocide, it is not the mistake or the fault of the person who defended himself.

ESTRIN: Israel rejects accusation of genocide in Gaza. We asked whether Hamas had achieved the objectives it set for itself in its October 7 attack.

NAIM: Yes, Hamas has achieved some of the goals of the Palestinian people. Before October 7, the Palestinian question was almost forgotten.

ESTRIN: He said the war had brought the Palestinians back to the top of the global agenda and turned public opinion against Israel, even in the United States. Naim called it a strategic and irreversible victory.

Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Doha, Qatar.

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