(JNS) The United States expects Hamas terrorists “to abide by the deal they signed,” a State Department spokesperson told JNS on Sunday, after terror chief Khaled Mashaal appeared to reject key elements of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan a day earlier.
“Hamas has agreed to all 20 points of President Trump’s 20 Point Plan. That means Gaza will be fully demilitarized for the sake of Gazans,” the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to JNS on Sunday afternoon.
The statement came after Mashaal, during a speech at an anti-Israel summit in Istanbul on Saturday, rejected the US- and UN-backed demands for Hamas to disarm and for the Strip to be demilitarized.
“Protecting the resistance project and its weapons is the right of our people to defend themselves,” the terrorist said, while calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.
“The resistance and its weapons are the honor and pride of the ummah[the Islamic nation],” Mashaal continued. “A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron.”
Mashaal in his taped speech also dismissed “all forms of guardianship, mandate and re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and all of Palestine,” rejecting another key part of Trump’s plan for Gaza, which received unanimous support of the UN Security Council on Nov. 17.
The resolution implemented a mandate for Washington and partners to launch an International Stabilization Force and a Board of Peace, which will serve as a transitional government authority for the coastal enclave.
The plan states that Hamas and other terrorists “agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form,” and that “all military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt.”
According to the Nov. 17 Security Council resolution, the International Stabilization Force will be responsible for the process of demilitarizing the Strip, including “the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”
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