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Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/22770/board-of-peace-hamas
A Dangerous Deal: Trump's Board of Peace and Hamas
(Gatestone Institute) Khaled Abu Toameh - Article 13 of President Trump's September 2025 Gaza peace plan states: "All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. There will be a process of demilitarization of Gaza under the supervision of independent monitors, which will include placing weapons permanently beyond use." Now, however, that clear objective appears to have been replaced by something radically different. Instead of eliminating Hamas's arsenal, negotiators are discussing storing weapons, transferring them to another Palestinian party, and even allowing Hamas members to retain "personal firearms." Replacing "demilitarization" with "storage" is a win for Hamas. Transferring weapons from one Palestinian group to another is not demilitarization. Why should a terrorist organization that carried out the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel be allowed to dictate the conditions of its own disarmament? No country fighting ISIS or al-Qaeda would first withdraw its forces and only then hope terrorists voluntarily surrender their weapons. Hamas should not be negotiating the terms of its defeat. It should be compelled to unconditionally surrender and disarm.