Hamas Rejects $15-Billion Aid Offer for Dismantling Arms

TEHRAN (defapress) – The head of the political bureau of the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas rejected a $15-billion development aid offer aimed at disarming the group.

News ID: 81656

Date: 28 July 2020 - 11:34

"Hamas rejected a proposal of carrying out several economic projects, including an airport and a seaport in Gaza for dismantling the arms of the movement and changing its strategies towards Israel," Ismail Haniyeh said, Xinhua reported.

Haniyeh, who had left the Gaza Strip ten months ago and is currently in Qatar, made his remarks to the Qatari news website Lusail in an interview at his office in Doha published on Monday.

The top Hamas leader said that the United States made the offer through a third mediator that he didn't name, adding that the proposal was part of the US President Donald Trump's so-called Mideast peace plan.

"The American plan is aiming at establishing an isolated Palestinian entity in the Gaza Strip," Haniyeh explained, adding that a third party "came to us and made the offer, but we rejected it."

"Hamas will not give up the land of Palestine and will never hand over its arms or stop the resistance or abandon the right of return," said Haniyeh, adding that Hamas will never sell Jerusalem al-Quds for money.

In the interview, Haniyeh said that more than 13 years of an Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip caused more than 45 percent of unemployed and high rates of poverty.

"Thanks to Qatar, who had already donated 1.5 billion US dollars in support for the Gaza Strip over the past ten years," he said.

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