Hamas isn’t disarming

The deputy chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said on January 28 that Hamas never agreed to disarm. “We haven’t discussed the weapons yet; no one has spoken to us directly about it,” he told Al Jazeera. “We haven’t spoken with the American side or the mediators on this issue.” Yet the American side is continuing to push Israel to fulfill its obligations under the second phase of the Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff-brokered ceasefire. Marzouk repeatedly stressed that Hamas controls Gaza and even implied that Hamas could veto the appointment of the Board of Peace director. These comments from a top Hamas official indicate that the Trump administration will be unable to turn its sunny vision for the future of Gaza into reality.