RAMALLAH:&nbsp;Palestinians in the West Bank and a central area of Gaza began voting Saturday in municipal elections in a first vote since the Gaza war, marked by a narrow political field and widespread disillusionment. Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza&#39;s Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission. Polling stations opened at 7 am (0400 GMT). AFP footage from Al-Bireh in the West Bank and Deir el-Balah in Gaza showed election officials in polling stations as Palestinians came to cast ballots. Most electoral lists are aligned with president Mahmud Abbas&#39;s secular-nationalist Fatah party or running as independents. There are no lists affiliated with Fatah&#39;s archrival Hamas, which controls nearly half of the Gaza Strip. In most cities, Fatah-backed tickets will run against independent lists headed by candidates from factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Marxist-Leninist). Israeli occupation&nbsp; Mahmud Bader, a businessman from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, where two adjacent refugee camps have been under Israeli military control for over a year, said he would vote despite having little hope for meaningful change. &quot;Whether candidates are independent or partisan, it has no effect and will have no effect or benefit for the city,&quot; he told AFP. &quot;The (Israeli) occupation is the one that rules Tulkarem. It would only be an image shown to the international media -- as if we have elections, a state or independence.&quot; In many cities, including Nablus and Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, only one list has been submitted, meaning it wins automatically without needing a vote. Polling stations in the West Bank will close at 7 pm, while polls in Deir al-Balah will close at 5 pm to facilitate counting in daylight due to the lack of electricity in the war devastated strip, the elections commission told AFP. UN coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov commended the commission for organising a &quot;credible process&quot;. &quot;Saturday&#39;s elections represent an important opportunity for Palestinians to exercise their democratic rights during an exceptionally challenging period&quot;, Alakbarov said in a statement ahead of polls. &#39;Confirmation of existence&#39;Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since 2007, will see its first vote since the legislative elections of 2006, which the movement won. Abbas&#39;s Palestinian Authority is holding elections only in Deir el-Balah &quot;as an experiment (to test its own) success or failure, since there are no post-war opinion polls&quot;, Jamal al-Fadi, a political scientist at Cairo&#39;s Al-Azhar University, told AFP. Deir el-Balah was chosen as it was one of the only places in Gaza where &quot;the population has remained largely in place and not been displaced&quot; by more than two years of war between Hamas and Israel, Fadi said. Farah Shaath, 25, was excited to vote for the first time. &quot;Although it is unlike any election in the world, it is a confirmation of our continued existence in the Gaza Strip despite everything,&quot; she told AFP. The election commission says it has recruited polling staff from civil society organisations and hired &quot;a private security company to secure polling centres&quot; for the Gaza vote, spokesman Fareed Taamallah told AFP. But a source from the commission in Gaza, who asked to remain anonymous, said that &quot;Hamas police insisted on securing the electoral process in Deir al-Balah&quot;. The source added that &quot;this will be done by deploying unarmed security personnel in civilian clothing around polling centres&quot;, which number 12 in Deir el-Balah.

Middle East

Nearly 1.5 million people are registered to vote in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as 70,000 people in Gaza's Deir el-Balah area, according to the Ramallah-based Central Elections Commission.

Palestinians vote in first elections since Gaza war

UNITED NATIONS: The Gaza envoy for US President Donald Trump&#39;s new &quot;Board of Peace&quot; initiative urged UN Security Council members to pressure Hamas to disarm, as part of a ceasefire to end over two years of war. &quot;I ask the council members to use all means at their disposal to urge Hamas and all Palestinian factions to accept this framework without delay,&quot; said Nickolay Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian diplomat named the board&#39;s high representative for Gaza. &quot;Every hour, every day wasted carries a human cost and further erodes the process for credible and lasting peace,&quot; he told a Security Council meeting on the Palestinian conflict. Trump&#39;s administration, along with Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war in Gaza. In January, Washington said it was moving into the second phase of the peace plan that calls for the disarmament of Hamas. It also calls for the gradual retreat of Israeli forces and the deployment of an international stabilizing force. But despite the reduced violence, Israeli strikes have at times continued, resulting in hundreds of deaths since the ceasefire, and Hamas has refused to disarm under conditions it says are imposed by Israel. &quot;The laying down of arms by militant groups would represent a decisive break from cycles of violence that have defined life in Gaza for decades,&quot; Mladenov said. Trump&#39;s Board of Peace has promised a wave of reconstruction and investment aid for Gaza in case of a lasting truce. Since then, at least 72,000 people have died in Gaza in an Israeli military offensive, according to the territory&#39;s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. Also at the meeting, the UN Resident Coordinator Office&#39;s deputy special coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ramiz Alakbarov, warned of a &quot;heightened level of violence in the West Bank.&quot; Violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank risks &quot;further displacing Palestinian communities,&quot; he said.

A Palestinian man gestures as he stands in the remains of a burnt-out home following a reported attack by Israeli settlers in the village of Deir al-Hatab, east of the city of Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 23, 2026 (AFP).

Americas

The Gaza envoy for US President Donald Trump's new "Board of Peace" initiative urged UN Security Council members to pressure Hamas to disarm, as part of a ceasefire to end over two years of war.

Trump's 'Board of Peace' Gaza envoy urges Hamas to disarm 'without delay'

CAIRO:&nbsp;A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the Palestinian movement was in the final phase of selecting a new leader, with two prominent figures competing for the position. Hamas recently completed the formation of a new Shura Council, a consultative body largely composed of religious scholars, as well as a new political bureau, the official said. Since the war in Gaza began, Israeli forces have killed several of the movement&#39;s leaders, including two former chiefs. &quot;The movement has completed its internal elections in the three regions and has reached the final stage of selecting the head of the political bureau,&quot; the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly. He added that the race for the group&#39;s leadership is now between Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya. A second Hamas source confirmed the development. Despite a US-brokered ceasefire that entered its second phase last month, violence has continued in Gaza, with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for violating the agreement. Members of the council are elected every four years by representatives from Hamas&#39;s three branches: the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and the movement&#39;s external leadership. Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails are also eligible to vote. The council subsequently elects the political bureau, which in turn selects the head of the movement. &#39;Renew internal legitimacy&#39;A third Hamas source said the new leader will serve for only &quot;one year... a transitional period.&quot; Thousands of Hamas members voted to choose the council and the political bureau, the source added, without specifying how the vote was conducted. &quot;The primary goal of the process was to renew internal legitimacy and fill leadership vacancies,&quot; the source added. The new leader will need to navigate between international calls, led by the United States and Israel, for the group to disarm, and resistance to that demand from its armed wing, which fought Israeli forces in Gaza. Hamas, however, said it would surrender its weapons to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza under certain conditions. Both Meshaal and Hayya have years of experience within the movement. Hayya, 65, a Gaza native and Hamas&#39;s chief negotiator in ceasefire talks, has held senior roles since at least 2006, according to the US-based NGO the Counter Extremism Project (CEP). Meshaal, who led the political bureau from 2004 to 2017, has never lived in Gaza. He was born in the West Bank in 1956. He joined Hamas in Kuwait and later lived in Jordan, Syria and Qatar. The CEP says he oversaw Hamas&#39;s evolution into a political-military hybrid. He currently heads the movement&#39;s diaspora office. Last month, a Hamas source told AFP that Hayya enjoys backing from the group&#39;s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassem Brigades. After Israel killed former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024, the group chose its then-Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar as his successor. Israel accused Sinwar of masterminding the October 7 attack. He, too, was killed by Israeli forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, three months after Haniyeh&#39;s assassination. Hamas then opted for an interim five-member leadership committee based in Qatar, postponing the appointment of a single leader until elections, given the risk of the new chief being targeted by Israel.&nbsp;

Hamas says it is finalizing selection of a new political chief, with Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya competing after internal elections amid ongoing Gaza conflict and mounting regional political pressures

Hamas official says group in final stage of choosing new chief

Beirut: Lebanon said Israeli strikes on the country&#39;s east and south killed at least eight people on Friday, with Israel&#39;s army saying it targeted militant group Hezbollah and its Palestinian ally Hamas. A Hezbollah source told AFP that a military leader from the Iran-backed group was among the dead in the strikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, usually saying it is targeting the group but occasionally also Hamas militants. Israeli strikes in the Bekaa &quot;led to an initial toll of six dead and more than 25 wounded, distributed across the region&#39;s hospitals,&quot; the state-run National News Agency said. The agency had earlier reported &quot;heavy strikes&quot; in several locations in the region, including a raid on a building in Riyak. Israel&#39;s army said it hit &quot;Hezbollah command centers&quot; in the Baalbek area. The raids came hours after an Israeli strike on the country&#39;s largest Palestinian refugee camp killed two people, according to the health ministry, with Israel&#39;s army saying it had targeted Hamas. The NNA said &quot;an Israeli drone&quot; targeted a neighborhood of the Ain al-Helweh camp, which is located on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon. An AFP correspondent saw smoke rising from a building in the densely populated camp as ambulances headed to the scene. Hamas&nbsp;The Israeli army said in a statement that its forces &quot;struck a Hamas command center from which terrorists operated.&quot; The Israeli military &quot;is operating against the entrenchment&quot; of the Palestinian militant group in Lebanon and will &quot;continue to act decisively against Hamas terrorists wherever they operate,&quot; it added. Hamas in a statement condemned the attack, which it said led to &quot;civilian&quot; casualties. It rejected Israel&#39;s allegations as &quot;flimsy pretexts,&quot; saying the targeted building &quot;belongs to the joint security force charged with maintaining security and stability in the camp.&quot; A raid on Ain al-Helweh last November that Israel said targeted a Hamas training compound killed 13 people. The UN rights office had said 11 children were killed in that strike, while Hamas denied it had military installations in Palestinian camps in Lebanon. In October 2023, Hezbollah began launching rockets at Israel in support of Hamas at the outset of the Gaza war, triggering hostilities that culminated in two months of all-out war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group. Lebanon&#39;s government last year committed to disarming Hezbollah, and the army said last month that it had completed the first phase of the plan, covering the area near the Israeli border. Israel, which accuses Hezbollah of rearming, has criticized the army&#39;s progress as insufficient.

An Israeli strike in south Lebanon hit the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp, while the Israeli army said it targeted the Palestinian group.

Lebanon says 8 dead in Israeli strikes on east, south

GAZA CITY: Hamas said any discussions on Gaza must begin with a total halt to Israeli &quot;aggression&quot; as Donald Trump&#39;s &quot;Board of Peace&quot; maps out the territory&#39;s future, with Israel insisting on the militants&#39; disarmament before reconstruction starts. Trump&#39;s board met for its inaugural session in Washington on Thursday, with a number of countries pledging money and personnel for rebuilding, more than four months into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. But the board meeting offered no timeline for Hamas to lay down its weapons or for Israel&#39;s army to withdraw from the shattered enclave. &quot;Any political process or any arrangement under discussion concerning the Gaza Strip and the future of our Palestinian people must start with the total halt of aggression,&quot; Hamas said in a statement late Thursday. The Palestinian group also said arrangements for Gaza&#39;s future must start with the &quot;lifting of the blockade and the guarantee of our people&#39;s legitimate national rights, first and foremost their right to freedom and self-determination.&quot; During the Board of Peace meeting, it was announced that a handful of countries&mdash;Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Morocco&mdash;would commit troops to a nascent International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP that the Palestinian Islamist movement was open to international forces in the territory, but with caveats. &quot;We want peacekeeping forces that monitor the ceasefire, ensure its implementation, and act as a buffer between the occupation army and our people in the Gaza Strip, without interfering in Gaza&#39;s internal affairs,&quot; Qassem said. The ISF aims to have 20,000 soldiers, as well as a new police force. Muslim-majority Indonesia has said it is ready to send up to 8,000 troops. &#39;Security and peace&#39;&nbsp;The Board of Peace was established after the Trump administration, with longtime mediators Qatar and Egypt, negotiated a ceasefire in October to halt two years of devastating war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The next phase of the Trump plan provides for the disarmament of Hamas, the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli military, and the deployment of the ISF, with a transitional Palestinian technocratic committee overseeing day-to-day governance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Hamas must disarm before any reconstruction begins. But Hamas refuses to lay down its arms under the conditions set by Israel. Both sides have frequently accused each other of violating the terms of the ceasefire, which came into effect last October after two years of devastating war. At the Board of Peace meeting on Thursday, Trump said several countries, mostly in the Gulf, had pledged more than seven billion dollars to rebuild the territory. Palestinians who spoke to AFP in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis swayed between hope and suspicion about the Washington meeting. &quot;Trump is merely a military force imposing his views on the world, and this security council, which he boasts about, is another gateway to the occupation of Palestine, another face of the Zionist occupation,&quot; said Farid Abu Odeh, referring to the board. Another Palestinian, Mohammed al-Saqqa, said he was praying Trump&#39;s board would lead to &quot;security and peace, and to something better than what we have gone through.&quot; &#39;Colonial project&#39;But many experts and some US allies have indicated skepticism at the board due to concerns it may sideline the United Nations. Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP he found what was emerging from the board &quot;seriously disturbing.&quot; Lovatt said many of its ideas for Gaza&#39;s reconstruction originated from Israeli-friendly partners, while Palestinian voices were excluded. He said signs pointed to &quot;a colonial project in terms of trying to impose a foreign economic project on a territory.&quot; French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the European Commission should not have sent a representative to the meeting, as it did not have a mandate to represent member states. Former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said the lack of Palestinian input and the grand reconstruction plans contingent on Hamas&#39;s disarmament made it &quot;hard to take the Board of Peace seriously.&quot;

Hamas demands end to Israeli aggression before Gaza talks, as Donald Trump’s Board of Peace plans reconstruction amid disputes over disarmament, ceasefire terms, and governance

Hamas says Israel must end 'aggression' as Trump board plans Gaza future

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump announced that member states of the Board of Peace have pledged $5 billion for Gaza&#39;s reconstruction and committed thousands of personnel to join the International Stabilization Force in the region. In a post on Truth Social,&nbsp;Trump said he would announce this development when the board meets in Washington at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace on Feb. 19.&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;We will announce that member states have pledged more than $5 billion dollars toward the Gaza humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, and have committed thousands of personnel to the International Stabilization Force and local police to maintain security and peace for Gazans.&rdquo; Trump wrote. He also urged Hamas to move forward with disarmament under his plan for postwar Gaza. &quot;Very importantly, Hamas must uphold its commitment to Full and Immediate Demilitarization,&quot; Trump said in the post.&nbsp;Disarmament is a key part of the second phase of the US-brokered ceasefire plan sealed in October between Israel and the Palestinian militant group to end the war triggered by Hamas&#39;s attack on Israel in October 2023. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/c51f8c1d-e843-4892-a1f8-4b170e26e738-Screenshot 2026-02-15 214653.png" alt="Screenshot 2026-02-15 214653.png" class="fr-fil fr-dib"></figure> The United Nations endorsed the plan in November.&nbsp;The second phase stipulates that Israeli forces gradually withdraw from Gaza and Hamas should disarm, with an international stabilization force deployed to ensure security.&nbsp;Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.&nbsp;Both sides accuse each other daily of ceasefire violations.&nbsp;Although originally intended to oversee Gaza&#39;s rebuilding, the Board of Peace&#39;s charter does not appear to limit its role to Palestinian territory.&nbsp;&quot;The Board of Peace has unlimited potential,&quot; Trump said Sunday in his post.&nbsp;After an initial meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, the board is due to meet on Thursday in the US capital.&nbsp;Countries have been asked to pay $1 billion for permanent membership of the board, and the invitation for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country invaded Ukraine in 2022, has drawn criticism.&nbsp;Key US allies, including France and Britain, have expressed doubts.&nbsp;Trump has said the organization will work &quot;in conjunction&quot; with the United Nations.&nbsp;&quot;The Board of Peace will prove to be the most consequential International Body in History,&quot; he said.&nbsp;Under the ceasefire plan, a Palestinian technocratic committee has also been set up with a goal of taking over governance in the battered Gaza Strip.

The US president urged that 'Hamas must uphold its commitment to Full and Immediate Demilitarization.'

Board of Peace members have committed 'thousands of personnel' to peace force, over $5B for Gaza: Trump

GAZA CITY: Hamas said Saturday it was ready to hand over its weapons in the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian authority governing the territory on the condition that the Israeli army&#39;s occupation ends.&nbsp;&quot;Our weapons are linked to the existence of the occupation and the aggression,&quot; Hamas chief negotiator and its Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said in a statement, adding: &quot;If the occupation ends, these weapons will be placed under the authority of the state.&quot; Asked by AFP, Hayya&#39;s bureau said he was referring to a sovereign and independent Palestinian state.&nbsp;&quot;We accept the deployment of UN forces as a separation force, tasked with monitoring the borders and ensuring compliance with the ceasefire in Gaza,&quot; Hayya added, signalling his group&#39;s rejection of the deployment of an international force in the Strip whose mission would be to disarm it.

Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya supports UN border-monitoring forces but rejects any international mission aimed at disarming the group.

Hamas to surrender arms to Palestinian authority if Israeli occupation ends

WASHINGTON: US envoy Jared Kushner, when asked about the prospect of a Palestinian state, which most governments worldwide now recognize but Israel and the United States do not, said it was &ldquo;too early to tell.&rdquo; Israel should help the Palestinians &quot;thrive&quot; if it seeks regional integration after the Gaza war is over, said Kushner, who has been involved in mediation efforts for a ceasefire. &quot;The biggest message that we&#39;ve tried to convey to the Israeli leadership now is that now that the war is over, if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive and do better,&quot; Kushner told CBS News in an interview that aired on Sunday. The interview preceded fresh Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip. Kushner, who is also US President Donald Trump&#39;s son-in-law, helped broker landmark deals during his first term in office that saw several Arab governments normalize ties with Israel. &lsquo;Joint security and economic opportunity&rsquo;In the CBS interview, he said that the situation remained &quot;very difficult,&quot; but he was looking for &quot;joint security and economic opportunity&quot; to guarantee that Israelis and Palestinians &quot;can live peacefully side by side in a durable way.&quot; On Monday, Kushner returned to Israel alongside Trump&#39;s special envoy Steve Witkoff for a visit that is expected to see them meet with Israeli government officials. Referring to the situation in Gaza since the October 10 ceasefire began, Kushner said: &quot;Hamas right now is doing exactly what you would expect a terrorist organization to do, which is to try to reconstitute and take back their positions.&quot; But he argued that if &quot;a viable alternative&quot; emerges, &quot;Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future.&quot;

Says, 'biggest message we've tried to convey to the Israeli leadership is … if you want to integrate Israel with the broader Middle East, you have to find a way to help the Palestinian people thrive.' 

 ‘Too early to tell,’ says US envoy Kushner about prospect of Palestinian state  

JERUSALEM: The United Nations&#39; aid chief took stock of the monumental task of restoring the basic necessities in the devastated Gaza Strip on Saturday, and Israel received the remains of another hostage as the ceasefire entered its second week. In a short convoy of white UN jeeps, relief coordinator Tom Fletcher and his team wound their way through the twisted rubble of shattered homes to inspect a wastewater treatment plant in Sheikh Radwan, north of Gaza City. &quot;I drove through here seven to eight months ago when most of these buildings were still standing, and to see the devastation, this is a vast part of the city, just a wasteland, and it&#39;s absolutely devastating to see,&quot; he told AFP. Reduced to ruins&nbsp;The densely packed cities of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, have been reduced to ruins by two years of bombardment by the Israeli army. Just over a week since US President Donald Trump helped broker a truce, the main border crossing to Egypt has yet to be reopened, but hundreds of trucks roll in daily via Israeli checkpoints, and aid is being distributed. Hamas has returned the final 20 surviving hostages it was holding and has begun to hand over the remains of another 28 who died.On Friday night, it turned over a set of remains identified by Israel as Eliyahu Margalit. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Digging latrines&nbsp;</h2>Surveying the damaged pumping equipment and a grim lake of sewage at the Sheikh Radwan wastewater plant, Fletcher said the task ahead for the UN and aid agencies was a &quot;massive, massive job&quot;. The British diplomat said he had met residents returning to destroyed homes trying to dig latrines in the ruins. &quot;They&#39;re telling me most of all they want dignity,&quot; he said. &quot;We&#39;ve got to get the power back on so we can start to get the sanitation system back in place. &lsquo;60-day plan&rsquo;&nbsp;&quot;We have a massive 60-day plan now to surge in food, get a million meals out there a day, start to rebuild the health sector, bring in tents for the winter, get hundreds of thousands of kids back into school.&quot; According to figures supplied to mediators by the Israeli military&#39;s civil affairs agency and released by the UN humanitarian office, on Thursday, some 950 trucks carrying aid and commercial supplies crossed into Gaza from Israel. Relief agencies have called for the Rafah border crossing from Egypt to be reopened to speed the flow of food, fuel, and medicines, and Turkey has a team of rescue specialists waiting at the border to help find bodies in the rubble. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">Hostage remains&nbsp;</h2>Israel&#39;s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the ceasefire but is under pressure at home to restrict access to Gaza until the remaining bodies of the hostages taken during Hamas&#39;s brutal attacks have been returned. On Saturday, his office confirmed that the latest body, returned by Hamas via the Red Cross on Friday night, had been identified as Margalit. In a statement confirming he had been identified and his remains returned to his family, Netanyahu&#39;s office said &quot;we will not compromise ... and will spare no effort until we return all of the fallen abductees, down to the last one&quot;. Committed to the agreement&nbsp;Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said on Friday that the group &quot;continues to uphold its commitment to the ceasefire agreement... and it will continue working to complete the full prisoner exchange process.&quot; Under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, negotiated by Trump and regional mediators, the Palestinian group has returned all 20 surviving hostages and the remains of 10 out of 28 deceased ones.

The densely packed cities of the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, have been reduced to ruins by two years of bombardment by the Israeli army.

UN aid chief foresees 'massive job' ahead on tour of ruined Gaza

WASHINGTON DC/JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Hamas must lay down its arms and turn in its weapons.&nbsp; &quot;If they don&#39;t disarm, we will disarm them,&quot; Trump told reporters at the White House a day after visiting the Middle East to celebrate the Gaza ceasefire. &quot;And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.&quot; He said those who agree to &quot;decommission their weapons&quot; will be given amnesty. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has maintained the war cannot end until Hamas surrenders its weapons and cedes control of Gaza, a demand the fighters have rejected.&nbsp; &quot;First, Hamas has to give up its arms, and second, you want to make sure that there are no weapons factories inside Gaza. There&#39;s no smuggling of weapons into Gaza. That&#39;s demilitarization,&quot; he said in an interview with CBS News.&nbsp;Meanwhile,&nbsp;Hamas is reported to be fighting what it calls Israel-supported &quot;outlaws.&quot;&nbsp;In the north of the territory, as Israeli forces withdrew from Gaza City, black-masked armed men have resumed street patrols.&nbsp; A Hamas security unit has been conducting operations against armed clans and gangs.&nbsp;&quot;Intense clashes broke out -- and are still ongoing at the moment -- as part of efforts to eliminate collaborators,&quot; said witness Yahya, who asked not to be named in full for fear of retribution. Reassuring presenceHamas has, since it crushed rival Fatah in armed clashes in 2007, been the dominant Palestinian faction in Gaza. For many Palestinians rebuilding their homes and lives amid Gaza&#39;s rubble, the sight of the militants was reassuring.&nbsp;&quot;After the war ended and the police spread out in the streets, we started to feel safe,&quot; said 34-year-old Abu Fadi Al-Banna in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.&nbsp;Hamdiya Shammiya, 40, who was driven from her home in northern Gaza by the fighting to seek shelter in the southern city of Khan Yunis, agreed.&nbsp;&quot;Thank God the war is finally over. We&#39;ve started to breathe a little,&quot; she said.&nbsp;While Palestinians sought stability, Israeli families stepped up pressure for the return of the remains of deceased hostages still held in Gaza. Israel to reopen Gaza&#39;s Rafah crossingMeanwhile, Israel said it will allow Gaza&#39;s key Rafah crossing to reopen on Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinian territory, AFP reported.&nbsp;&quot;Six hundred trucks of humanitarian aid will be dispatched (Wednesday) to the Gaza Strip by the UN, approved international organizations, the private sector and donor countries,&quot; Israeli public broadcaster KAN said on its website without citing sources.&nbsp;The Israeli public broadcaster said the reopening of the southern Rafah crossing, decided by the &quot;political echelon&quot;, follows Hamas handing over the remains of four more hostages late Tuesday, under the ceasefire deal for the Palestinian territory. Prominent Gaza hospital chief remains in Israeli prisonIn another development, more than 100 medical personnel seized during raids on hospitals remain in Israeli prisons, including Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, a hospital director who became the face of the struggle to keep treating patients under Israeli siege and bombardment, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.&nbsp; Despite widespread calls for his release, Abu Safiya was not among the Palestinian detainees and prisoners freed Monday in exchange for 20 hostages held by Hamas.&nbsp; Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been imprisoned without charge by Israel for nearly 10 months.&nbsp; It was not known if Abu Safiya, 52, might still be released. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. His family said on social media there were &ldquo;no confirmed details about the date of his release,&rdquo; adding that freed detainees described him as &ldquo;in good health and strong spirits.&rdquo; The Israeli military said Abu Safiya was being investigated on suspicion of cooperating with or working for Hamas.&nbsp; Health Workers Watch, which documents detentions from Gaza, said at least 115 medical workers remain in custody, as well as the remains of four who died while in Israeli prisons, where rights groups and witnesses have reported frequent abuse.

Says those Hamas members who agree to 'decommission their weapons' will be given amnesty. World powers endorse peace agreement, saying Gaza will be demilitarized, Hamas will have no leadership role.

Articles tagged with "Hamas"