A senior Hamas leader said Sunday the group will not disarm or accept foreign intervention in Gaza, rejecting U.S. and Israeli demands.
"Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept," Khaled Meshal said at a conference in Doha.
"As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation ... something nations take pride in," said Meshal, who previously headed the group.
Hamas has waged an armed struggle against what it sees as Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. It launched a deadly cross-border incursion into Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered Tel Aviv's genocidal war.
A U.S.-brokered cease-fire in Gaza is in its second phase, which foresees the demilitarization of the territory – including the disarmament of Hamas – along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.
