A senior Hamas leader declares the group will keep its weapons until Israel is eliminated, while floating a temporary truce if a Palestinian state is established.
Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said in a February 11, 2026 interview on Al Jazeera Network that the “Palestinian resistance” will not lay down its weapons until it fulfills what he described as its duty to eliminate the Israeli “occupation,” liberate all of Palestine, and establish a Palestinian state.
Hamdan stated that Hamas has made clear to mediators that the issue of Palestinian weapons is directly linked to the continued existence of Israel. According to him, the armed “resistance,” which he said began in 1917 under British rule, will continue until its objectives are achieved.
At the same time, Hamdan suggested that if the establishment of an independent Palestinian state were feasible, Hamas might agree to a hudna (temporary truce) for a defined period. During such a period, he said, the Palestinian state would be formed and would eventually have its own army to defend itself.