Why do Palestinians consider disarmament a red line?

As the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip becomes ever more critical as every day passes, Israeli occupation leaders have threatened to continue tightening the siege and preventing the entry of food, goods and water into the coastal enclave.

Israeli leaders claim there is enough food in Gaza and that Hamas is using it as a tool to keep controlling Palestinians in the enclave, but numerous UN agencies working on the ground refute this claim, stressing that there is a severe shortage of food aid, medical supplies, water and fuel while Israeli attacks have been escalating.

“Partners on the ground report a surge in attacks causing mass civilian casualties and the destruction of some of the remaining infrastructure that’s needed to keep people alive,” the UN’s humanitarian affairs office OCHA said in a report.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation leaders blatantly declare that they are using starvation against civilians as a pressure tool to force the Palestinian resistance to surrender and disarm. “As I mentioned… Israel’s policy is clear and no humanitarian aid is about to enter Gaza, and preventing humanitarian aid to Gaza is one of the main tools that prevents Hamas from using this measure against the population,” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz posted on X today.

He added: “In the current reality, no one is prepared to bring any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and no one is preparing to bring any such aid.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously voiced similar sentiment, while his extremist National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has gone further and called for the targeting and destruction of the remaining food depots in Gaza, as well as attacking and destroying an electricity generator or solar system running a water desalination plant.

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Amidst these harsh and inhumane conditions, a new ceasefire proposal emerged adding one more condition to previous illogical conditions – that the Palestinian resistance lay down its arms. “The Israeli proposal relayed to the movement through Egypt explicitly called for the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian factions without any Israeli commitment to end the war or withdraw from Gaza,” a senior source familiar with the ceasefire talks in Cairo said.

While the Palestinian resistance has not yet announced its official response to this proposal, senior Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri said: “Handing over the resistance’s weapons is a million red lines and is not subject to consideration, let alone discussion.”

At the same time, he insisted that Hamas is ready to release all the Israeli captives held by the resistance movements in Gaza in one batch in exchange for the end of the Israeli genocide, the full withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from Gaza, resuming entry of aid and the beginning of the reconstruction of the decimated territory.

I believe Israel added the clause about the disarmament of the resistance in an effort to buy it more time to continue its genocide and bring the resistance to its knees. It is trying to portray to the world and the families of the captives that Tel Aviv is providing solutions, which Hamas is rejecting.

But this does not mean that Israel is not serious about this new demand. Israeli leaders know that if Hamas agrees to disarm, it would become a useless Palestinian resistance faction similar to Fatah, issuing statements that fade through time but providing no real support for its people. As with Fatah, with no arms, Hamas may begin to defend the occupation and its actions.

However the Palestinian resistance understands that plans to disarm it will not bring an end to the genocide, but will provide a step towards carrying out Israeli-American plan to force Palestinians out of Gaza easily and without any form of resistance.

The Palestinian resistance believes that giving up its arms means giving up a right guaranteed to Palestinians by international laws and conventions;  the right to armed resistance against the Israeli occupation.

The resistance also remembers what happened to Palestinians in 1948 when they trusted the Arab regimes and agreed to give up their arms for the Arab armies to protect them.

The Palestinian resistance has not forgotten what happened in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and Qana in Lebanon. The resistance leaders look at how the Israeli occupation is dealing with Palestinians governed by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank.

They see how a settler can detain a PA officer or prevent the PA’s prime minister from moving from a place. They see how an extremist Israeli settler burns a Palestinian village and goes unpunished while a Palestinian boy throwing a stone at an Israeli armoured vehicle is killed.

For the Palestinian resistance and its supporters, there are thousands of reasons that make it impossible to give up their arms. Whether Palestinians disarm or not, the declared Israeli goal is to kill them. They prefer to be killed with their weapons in their hands rather than with their hands tied behind their backs.

“Surrender is not an option for the Hamas movement, and we will not accept breaking the will of our people,” Abu Zuhri said. “Hamas will not surrender, will not raise the white flag, and will use all pressure cards today and tomorrow against the Israeli occupation until it is ended and Palestine is free.”

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.