According to a recent report in MEMRI, both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad rejected the idea of having an International Stabilization Force in Gaza working to disarm them. They threatened to attack this force.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a recent report in MEMRI, “Following the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 2803 on November 17, 2025, which is based on U.S. President Trump’s 20-point plan and calls for the deployment of an “International Stabilization Force” (ISF) in Gaza – tasked inter alia with “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state groups” and “the destruction of military, terror, and offensive infrastructure”– Hamas and the other Palestinian terror organizations declared their opposition to major clauses of the resolution, and threatened to regard the ISF as a “foreign occupying force” and fight it.”
MEMRI added, “Hamas officials rejected any “foreign guardianship” over Gaza and said they would oppose any attempt to disarm the Palestinian resistance. A statement issued by Hamas declared that “assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation.” Hamas officials reiterated these messages.”
According to MEMRI, “Ali Barakeh, the movement’s official in charge of foreign relations, stressed that vesting the international force with internal security powers would be tantamount to “occupying Gaza,” and Muhammad Nazzal, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, warned of a slide toward confrontations and clashes with this force. A columnist in a Hamas-affiliated daily explicitly threatened that Hamas and the Palestinian terror organizations would fight the international force until its expulsion, as happened in Iraq and Afghanistan. Spokespersons for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) likewise clarified that they would regard the international force as an occupier and warned of clashes with it.”
MEMRI stressed, “Alongside these threats, Hamas is also trying to negotiate the boundaries of the international force’s powers under Resolution 2803, in an effort to empty the resolution of substance. For example, Hamas official Muhammad Nazzal noted that the resolution is worded in a general and vague terms, and that Hamas is engaging with numerous actors on the international stage in order to reach understandings regarding its details and its implementation in practice. The movement’s spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, told Al Jazeera that “the resistance is prepared to accept the presence of international forces in the Strip, but [only] with conditions regarding their mission,” namely that their role be limited to the separation of forces.”[“
As stated, on the day after the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 2803, Hamas issued a statement, in Arabic and English, expressing its opposition to central clauses of the resolution that address the roles and powers of the Board of Council and the ISF, particularly with regards to disarming Hamas and the other Gaza factions. The statement read: “…The resolution imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people and their factions reject. It also imposes a mechanism to achieve the occupation’s objectives [of disarming Hamas and the other factions], which [the occupation] failed to accomplish through its brutal genocide… Resisting the occupation by all means is a legitimate right guaranteed by international laws and conventions. The weapons of the resistance are linked to the existence of the occupation, and any discussion of the weapons file must remain an internal national matter connected to a political path that ensures the end of the occupation, the establishment of the state [of Palestine], and self-determination.”
The statement added, “Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation. Any international force, if established, must be deployed only at the borders to separate forces, monitor the ceasefire, and must be fully under UN supervision. It must operate exclusively in coordination with official Palestinian institutions, without the occupation having any role in it, and work to ensure the flow of aid, without being turned into a security authority that pursues our people and their resistance.”
In his November 20, 2025 column in Hamas’s daily Filastin, Fayez Abu Shamala stated that the ISF, authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 2803, will be an occupying force, and threatened that Hamas and the other Palestinian terror factions will fight it until it withdraws. He wrote: “The Gaza Strip has been placed under U.S. guardianship for a period of two years, with the possibility of renewal and extension. This means direct American intervention in the conflict on Palestinian soil, in favor of the Israeli enemy…”
According to Abu Shamala, “The American [notion of] peace in the Middle East is not much different from the Israeli [notion of] peace, which is based on subjugating the region through violence and terror. In other words, it means surrendering to the American will without any resistance. This was affirmed in Security Council Resolution [2803], submitted by the U.S., which was approved by several Arab and Muslim countries. The [International] Stabilization Force will be tasked with doing the dirty work that the Israeli armed forces have failed to accomplish for two years, namely disarming Hamas and the Palestinian resistance, and preparing to turn Gaza into an American protectorate in which the Israeli foxes can do as they please…”
Abu Shamala concluded, “Amid this bleak outlook for the future of life in Gaza came the statements of the Palestinian factions, which rejects America’s decision to impose [its] hegemony on Gaza. This Palestinian refusal will lead to decisions and practical measures on the ground – especially given that the responsibility for the [daily] lives of the Gazans has been transferred from Hamas to the American Board of Peace, in a way that exempts Hamas and the resistance factions from this responsibility. [Thus,] the resistance will be free to act against the [International] Stabilization Force, regardless of the nationality [of its members]. For, as long as this force agrees to fight under the command of the American and Israeli leadership, it will constitute an occupying force, [whose presence] contravenes the freedom and the will of the Palestinian people. This was demonstrated by the events in Iraq and Afghanistan, two [other] countries that the U.S. invaded, occupied and placed under the imposed [control of] American peace boards and stabilization forces [made up of] foreign mercenaries. The result was the defeat of the stabilization forces and the collapse of the peace boards after years of resistance…”
The PIJ likewise issued a statement clarifying that, if the international force is tasked with disarming the resistance, it will be treated as a partner of the occupation. The statement read: “…The right of our people to resist the occupation by every legitimate means is guaranteed under international law, and the weapons of the resistance ensure [its ability] to realize this right. Therefore, tasking the international force with roles that include disarming the resistance turns it from a neutral actor into a partner in implementing the agenda of the occupation…”
PIJ spokesperson Muhammad Al-Hajj Moussa told Al-Jazeera on November 18, 2025: “We want all the countries that said they would send soldiers to the Gaza Strip to understand one thing. We do not want to clash with any of these countries, especially not with the Arab and Islamic countries. They must not allow anyone to pit them against the Palestinian people. They must retract [their decision]. We will deal with any force that enters the Gaza Strip as an occupying force.”
Photo from Fars Media Corporation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas#/media/File:2013_Izz_ad-Din_al-Qassam_Brigades_exercise_(8).jpg
