Asked earlier this week at a press conference about whether or not Hamas would lay down its weapons as part of the newly agreed-upon ceasefire deal, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “well, they’re going to disarm because they said they were going to disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them.”. Disarming or decommissioning Hamas will be a complex and multidimensional process with an array of obstacles, including technical and strategic. If Hamas members surrender their guns, they would be unable to protect themselves against rival Palestinian factions, tribes, clans, and criminal gangs, making disarmament even more unlikely. There have been successful cases of disarmament, including in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Colombia, to a certain extent, yet in each case, the armed group had a somewhat clear path to political legitimacy or power-sharing, which does not apply to Israel’s demands that Hamas be excluded from governance.
The Challenge of Disarming Hamas (The Soufan Center)
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