Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Hamas has reaffirmed that it will not agree to disarm unless a sovereign Palestinian state is established [sic], in response to one of Israel’s key demands in talks about a ceasefire in Gaza. The Palestinian armed group said it was responding to remarks it attributed to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff that Hamas had ‘expressed its willingness’ to lay down its weapons. Israel considers the disarmament of Hamas one of several key conditions for any deal to end the conflict. Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages stalled last week.” [editor’s note: The state of Palestine was established in 1988; what Hamas wants is a totalitarian theocratic state under its control, which is why, ever since it won one election in 2006, it has refused to let Palestinians in Gaza vote again – TLK] (08/02/25)