Why Hamas Won’t Disarm

The Fellowship | March 27, 2018

Three Hama militants in uniform holding weapons. — Tensions Flare on Gaza Border after Hamas Military Drill

Writing at the Gatestone Institute, the courageous and insightful Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh discusses why Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to have Hamas disarm and give up control of the Gaza Strip are doomed to failure:

Hamas wants to retain its weapons and security control of the Gaza Strip for two reasons: first, it wants the weapons so that it can continue the “armed struggle” against Israel; second, Hamas knows that the moment it hands over security control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority (PA), many of its leaders and members will either be killed or imprisoned by Abbas’s security forces.

Ahmed Bahr, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, described Abbas’s demand that Hamas dismantle its security and military apparatus as “idiotic.”