Hamas terrorists have begun amassing advanced weapons and stockpiling them in African states, Yemen, and other countries with plans to smuggle them into Gaza, according to an Israeli intelligence report. The weapons cache operation comes as the terrorist organization publicly rejects the disarmament requirement in President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, recently endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.
The report, aired by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, revealed that Hamas has been accumulating weapons in recent weeks and storing them in unspecified locations abroad. The terrorist group intends to move these weapons to “strategic locations,” including Gaza, at a later date. The timing of this weapons buildup coincides with growing speculation that the Trump administration might forgo demanding Hamas’s disarmament in favor of advancing Gaza reconstruction efforts.
According to Israeli security sources cited by Channel 13, the White House is encountering difficulties securing commitments from third-party countries to participate in disarming Hamas as part of an international stabilization force. Yet the Trump plan explicitly requires Hamas’s demilitarization. The U.S. resolution calls for the stabilization force to ensure “the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip” and “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”
The terrorist organization is displaying an unwavering commitment to its stated purpose of armed violence against Israel. Hamas insisted that it would not disarm, saying the issue cannot be separated from “a political path that ensures the end of the occupation, the establishment of the state and self-determination.” The terrorists declared that involving any international force in attempts to disarm them “strips it of its neutrality and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation.”
Hamas’s refusal to disarm directly contradicts the requirements of Trump’s plan. Trump stated: “Well, they’re going to disarm, and because they said they were going to disarm,” adding, “And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently.” Hamas’s actions represent the exact opposite of this vision, choosing to stockpile swords when the world offers plowshares.
The weapons stockpiling operation validates Israel’s longstanding position that maritime security measures remain essential. Since 2009, Israel has maintained a naval blockade of Gaza specifically to prevent weapons smuggling by sea. A report issued by a panel of inquiry into the Mavi Marmara incident established by the UN Secretary General in September 2011 determined that Israel’s blockade on Gaza was legal and “a legitimate exercise of the right of self-defense,” since it was designed to stop weapons smuggling by Hamas and other military activity.
The San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, the authoritative source on naval warfare law, explicitly permits blockades as legitimate military measures. The 2011 UN Secretary-General’s Panel of Inquiry (Palmer Report) on the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident explicitly found the naval blockade legal under international law, determining it was imposed as a legitimate security measure to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea.
Hamas’s current operation demonstrates why the blockade cannot be lifted. If terrorists are stockpiling weapons in Africa and Yemen while publicly refusing disarmament, the maritime threat to Israel remains acute. Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that the IDF is making progress in destroying Hamas’s tunnel network on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line, but emphasized that “a multinational force led by the United States is supposed to handle the demilitarization and disarmament of Hamas in old Gaza.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir made clear that Israel will not accept Hamas rearmament. “We will continue to insist that Hamas’s rule will not exist on the other side of the border. Even if it takes time, we will persist in the mission of dismantling Hamas and demilitarizing the Strip, achieving this either through an agreement or through military means,” he stated during a visit to southern Gaza.
The weapons stockpiling abroad is not Hamas’s only method of maintaining its terrorist capabilities. A diary recovered from Hamas platoon commander Khaled Abu Akram in Beit Hanoun revealed the systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes. According to Channel 12, the diary documented how Hamas embeds operations in schools, hospitals, and UN facilities, and how its fighters repurpose unexploded IDF munitions. One entry described preparing an ambush inside a school, while another detailed burying an F-16 missile inside a school building.
The international community discovered additional evidence of Hamas’s global weapons network when Austria’s domestic intelligence service uncovered a weapons cache in Vienna, believed to be linked to the terrorist organization. The cache, stored in a Vienna suitcase, contained five handguns and ten magazines intended for “possible terrorist attacks in Europe,” according to Austrian authorities. A 39-year-old British citizen with alleged ties to the weapons was arrested in London.
Israel has maintained its position that Trump’s plan for Gaza cannot advance until Hamas is disarmed and the enclave demilitarized. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated: “We believe that this plan will lead to peace and prosperity, as it includes full demobilization, disarmament, and a process to deradicalize Gaza.”
The current situation creates a dangerous paradox. Hamas stockpiles weapons abroad while rejecting disarmament requirements. The terrorist organization demands an end to Israel’s naval blockade while simultaneously proving why that blockade remains necessary. As long as Hamas maintains weapons caches in Africa, Yemen, and Europe with the intention of smuggling them into Gaza, Israel’s maritime security measures remain not just legally justified but operationally essential.
