File photo: Senior Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal during a previous interview in Doha, Qatar.
"Criminalising the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept," Khaled Meshaal said at a conference in Doha.
"As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation ... something nations take pride in," said Meshal, who previously headed the group.
Meshaal warned that disarmament under occupation would leave Palestinians defenseless. “Disarming under occupation is an attempt to make our people an easy victim that can be eliminated,” he said.
He stressed that the central issue is Israel’s policies, not Palestinian weapons. “The problem is not Gaza’s weapon — the problem is Israel,” he said, warning that attempts to disarm Palestinians while allowing other armed actors in the territory to operate would create instability.
“The problem is Israel’s desire to confiscate Palestinian weapons and transfer power to militias to create chaos,” he added.
“We can reach guarantees away from Zionist pressure and blackmail,” he said, adding that Hamas has proposed a
long-term truce as a way to reduce violence while maintaining the right to resist. “This is a guarantee that arms are not deployed,” he said.
Hamas struggled against Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.
A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up to take over the day-to-day governance in the battered Gaza Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how, it will address the Israeli demand of demilitarisation.
The committee operates under the so-called "Board of Peace," an initiative launched by US President Donald Trump.
Originally conceived to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board's mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations and a new foreign mandate over Palestinian territory.
Trump unveiled the board at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos last month, where leaders and officials from nearly two dozen countries joined him in signing its founding charter.
Alongside the Board of Peace, Trump also created a Gaza Executive Board - an advisory panel to the Palestinian technocratic committee - comprising international figures including US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Meshaal urged the Board of Peace to adopt a "balanced approach" that would allow for Gaza's reconstruction and the flow of aid to its roughly 2.2 million residents, while warning that the Palestinian resistamce would "not accept foreign rule" over Palestinian territory.
"We adhere to our national principles and reject the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or the return of a mandate in any form," Meshaal said.
"Palestinians are to govern Palestinians. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza and to Palestine. We will not accept foreign rule," he added.
He said any serious discussion of Gaza’s future must begin with reconstruction, humanitarian relief, and guarantees that hostilities will not resume.
“If we are to talk about the future, it requires an environment that supports rebuilding and prevents the return of war,” he said, noting that Hamas has conveyed its position through mediators including Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, and indirect talks with the United States.
He criticized
Israel’s blockade and restrictions on humanitarian aid, saying that reopening border crossings alone would not allow Gaza to recover.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued near-daily strikes and has not withdrawn from areas behind the so-called “Yellow Line,” leaving much of the territory under ongoing military control and occupation, which he said must end for reconstruction to succeed.
Israeli fire has killed at least 576 Palestinians since the truce began in October 2025, and the overall death toll since Israel’s genocidal war began in October 2023 has surpassed 72,000, with more than 171,000 wounded. Civilians remain trapped under the blockade, enduring severe shortages of food, water, medical supplies, and other basic services.
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