Jared Kushner says months of negotiations produced a commitment from Hamas. Yet surrendering its weapons would require the terrorist movement to abandon the religious and political doctrine at the heart of its existence.

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief (Worthy News) – President Donald Trump says Hamas is willing to give up its weapons, offering a hopeful assessment of American efforts to demilitarize the Gaza Strip and move the devastated territory toward reconstruction and civilian government.

If Hamas follows through, the decision would mark one of the most consequential developments in the Middle East since the terrorist organization seized Gaza in 2007. It could clear the way for a new Palestinian technocratic government, the deployment of an international security force, further Israeli withdrawals and the rebuilding of communities shattered by war.

But there is an enormous distance between telling American negotiators what they want to hear and actually surrendering every rocket, rifle, tunnel and explosives factory.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and peace envoy, has been candid about the challenge. After months of discussions with Hamas, Kushner said the organization had committed to laying down its weapons. He nevertheless warned that demilitarizing Gaza would not be easy, describing the scale of the task as “beyond your comprehension.”

“You can’t go in if there’s guns,” Kushner said while discussing plans for a new Palestinian administration.

The administration has also made clear that major reconstruction cannot begin while Hamas remains armed. Washington wants the terrorist organization to transfer authority to a technocratic government, surrender its weapons and dismantle the military infrastructure it spent years embedding beneath Gaza’s homes, roads and public buildings.

That is the promise. Hamas’s theology and history provide ample reason to doubt it.

A Commitment Still Waiting for Proof

Kushner met senior Hamas leaders in Egypt in August and demanded “real efforts and not just words.” According to officials familiar with those discussions, Hamas representatives said they were prepared to leave government and begin demilitarizing.

The proposed roadmap calls for Hamas and other armed factions to decommission their weapons, disclose and dismantle tunnels and transfer arms to Palestinian authorities or an international stabilization force. Israel would withdraw in stages as those steps are verified.

Hamas has attempted to attach conditions to that commitment. Its officials have linked disarmament to an end to Israeli military operations, increased humanitarian assistance, reconstruction and a phased Israeli withdrawal.

There is also disagreement over what “disarmament” means. Hamas has previously sought to distinguish between heavy weapons—such as rockets and anti-tank missiles—and the rifles and pistols carried by its fighters and security forces.

Israel insists that demilitarization must be complete. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected any arrangement that allows Hamas to preserve armed units behind the cover of a reconstituted police force or civilian administration.

That concern is well founded. Hamas has repeatedly used ceasefires to survive, reorganize and rebuild. A deal that removes visible rocket launchers while leaving weapons, commanders, tunnels and recruitment networks intact would not disarm the organization. It would grant it time.

What Hamas Says It Believes

The principal theological obstacle is not Islam as a whole. Muslims across the Middle East have rejected Hamas’s brutality, and many Palestinians in Gaza want nothing more than an ordinary life free from terrorists, war and ideological coercion.

The obstacle is Hamas’s specific Sunni Islamist theology, rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood and developed into a doctrine of permanent armed struggle against Israel.

Hamas is an acronym for the Arabic name meaning “Islamic Resistance Movement.” From its beginning, the organization fused Palestinian nationalism with a revolutionary interpretation of Islam that declared the land to be a sacred Islamic trust that could not be permanently surrendered.

Its 1988 covenant called jihad the movement’s path and elevated death for the sake of Allah as one of its highest aspirations. It rejected negotiated solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and framed compromise over the land as a violation of religious obligation.

Hamas adopted a more carefully worded political document in 2017, removing some of the original covenant’s most openly antisemitic language. Yet it did not abandon the central doctrine of armed struggle.

The newer document states that “resistance and jihad” remain a right, duty and honor. It calls armed resistance a strategic choice and refuses to recognize the legitimacy of Israel. Hamas officials said at the time that the revised language did not change the organization’s underlying principles or strategy.

That creates a profound problem for Trump’s plan.

Weapons are not merely tools Hamas uses to hold political power. Within its own ideological system, the gun has become a symbol of religious faithfulness. The fighter is portrayed as a defender of sacred land, the terrorist killed in battle becomes a “martyr,” and continued struggle is presented as obedience to Allah.

Complete disarmament would therefore carry a meaning far beyond military defeat. Hamas would be admitting that decades of jihad, suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and the October 7 massacre had failed to accomplish the movement’s stated purpose.

It would also require Hamas to abandon its claim that armed resistance is a religious duty.

Why Defeat Is Difficult to Admit

Jihadist organizations do not measure victory as conventional governments do. Military losses, ruined territory, and the deaths of commanders do not necessarily produce surrender. Those losses can be recast as sacrifice, martyrdom and proof of steadfastness.

Survival itself can be declared a victory.

That theology allows Hamas leaders to continue fighting even when their decisions have brought catastrophe upon the people they claim to represent. As long as some fighters remain armed and the organization retains the ability to terrorize opponents, collect money, and recruit another generation, Hamas can argue that the “resistance” lives.

Admitting defeat could also shatter the organization internally. Fighters who were taught that surrender is betrayal may reject orders to disarm. Palestinian Islamic Jihad and smaller terrorist factions could refuse to participate. Some Hamas units might hide weapons or simply reorganize under new names.

Hamas may be willing to surrender certain weapons for tactical reasons. It may transfer old rockets, close exposed tunnels, or temporarily step away from visible government. It could portray such moves as a truce intended to preserve the movement until conditions change.

That would be accommodation, not transformation.

Hamas has demonstrated that it can negotiate when negotiation serves its survival. Its theology does not prevent temporary truces, prisoner exchanges, or tactical retreats. What it resists is a permanent settlement that recognizes Israel, ends jihad, and places all armed power under a government committed to peace.

Peace Requires More Than a Promise

Trump deserves credit for pressing a principle too often blurred by international diplomacy: Gaza cannot have a peaceful future while Hamas remains an armed power.

Kushner is also right that a functioning government cannot be built amid competing militias. No serious investment will enter Gaza if terrorists can seize supplies, intimidate officials or restart a war whenever it serves them.

But the standard must be verifiable disarmament—not carefully chosen language.

Hamas must provide complete weapons inventories and tunnel maps. Rockets, explosives, and production equipment must be destroyed under outside supervision. Armed units cannot be absorbed wholesale into a new police force. Gaza’s borders must be secured against smuggling, and reconstruction money must be protected from organizations connected to terrorism.

Most importantly, Hamas must lose the power to decide when another war begins.

Hope for peace is honorable. Trust without verification is not. A lasting peace in Gaza will require Hamas to do something it has never done: renounce not only its arsenal, but the jihadist theology that made the arsenal sacred.

Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.