Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.
A top Hamas leader told Qatari news channel Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the militant group is open to a weapons "freeze", but rejects the demand for disarmament put forward in the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza.
"The idea of total disarmament is unacceptable to the resistance (Hamas). What is being proposed is a freeze, or storage (of weapons)... to provide guarantees against any military escalation from Gaza with the Israeli occupation," said Khaled Meshaal in an interview aired Wednesday.
"Disarmament for a Palestinian means stripping away his very soul," Meshaal added. The former Hamas chief said the group was open to an international peacekeeping force along Gaza's border with Israel, but would not agree to it operating inside the Palestinian territory, calling such a plan an "occupation".
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