How Hamas Sees the Current Moment: An Exclusive Interview With Osama Hamdan
In a wide-ranging interview with Drop Site, the senior Hamas leader discusses negotiation strategy, why disarmament is a red line, his direct talks with U.S. officials, and more.
In an exclusive interview with Drop Site News, a senior Hamas official said that the movement will not capitulate to any demands from Israel or the U.S. to lay down its weapons and vowed that Hamas will reject any temporary ceasefire deal that does not include a clear path to a total Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the genocide.
“No need for a short-term ceasefire,” said Osama Hamdan, one of the longest serving senior officials within Hamas. “What the Israelis are offering is: We will give you a ceasefire for a short while and then we will come back to kill you again. So what's the idea of giving you food for 12, 40 days, two weeks or three weeks, and then coming back to kill you? It means that you endorse the genocide and you accept that for your own people.”
It has been two months since the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, signed in January between Hamas and Israel, came to an end and Israel imposed a full spectrum blockade—the longest in recent history. Since March 2, Israel has prevented all food, water, medicine, fuel, and other supplies from reaching the besieged enclave, plunging Gaza into the worst humanitarian crisis of the 19-month war, according to the UN. On March 18, Israel resumed its scorched earth bombing, killing more than 2,400 Palestinians, mostly women and children. During this period, regional mediators Qatar and Egypt have failed to convince Israel to return to the original three-phase framework, which stipulated a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the declaration of a permanent ceasefire.
Instead, Israel has issued a series of sweeping new demands as a condition for any halt to its genocidal operations. Central among these are the total demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, the exiling of Hamas leaders, and the removal of Hamas as the governing authority in Gaza.
“I believe the Israelis don’t believe in any solution with the Palestinians. When they talk about disarming the Palestinians, it's their idea of killing the hope of the Palestinians to be liberated. And then if they want to push them out, the Palestinians will have no way to defend themselves," Hamdan said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated plan for a “final stage” to the genocide that includes forcibly removing the population from Gaza. “When they talk about disarming the Palestinians—not only Hamas, the Palestinians—it means that they want the Palestinians to surrender. And when you surrender, you have to accept the will of the occupier.”
Hamdan said that Hamas was surprised to witness Egyptian mediators present an Israeli plan that included terms about total demilitarization of Gaza. “Why were we astonished to see them talking about this issue? Because it's an Israeli issue, and as a mediator, you are not supposed just to admit any suggestion from the Israeli side. You have to deal with that. You have to talk directly to the Israelis [and say], ‘This will not work,’” Hamdan said. “If Hamas said we want Netanyahu to hand [over] power and to give up Tel Aviv for the Palestinians, for example, they will directly answer, ‘This will not happen.’ Why [are they] not talking to the Israelis in the same way?”
Hamdan said that Palestinians have both a moral obligation and a legal mandate under international law to employ armed resistance to fight an Israeli occupation that has been repeatedly ruled illegal in international courts and is condemned as a system of apartheid by the world’s leading human rights organizations. “You can't talk about de-weaponizing the nation who is under occupation, while they are occupied by the most powerful army in the region,” he said. “Hamas did not invent the resistance for Palestine. In fact, the Palestinians resisted the British occupation and, since then, the Israeli occupation for decades. Talking about de-weaponizing the Palestinians, it will not solve the problem. The new generation will fight because you are oppressing the nation all the time. So there is no option for the Palestinians to get rid of this occupation without the resistance, no other option.”
Hamas has repeatedly proposed arrangements to end the occupation since the early 1990s, and Israel has rejected them all. Last week, it dismissed Hamas’s most recent offer, which would have seen all Israeli captives in Gaza returned to Israel as part of a multi-year deal. “They have rejected it and they may reject it another time, but this is also an answer for the international community when they keep asking the Palestinians, ‘OK, how can we solve the problem?’” Hamdan explained. “You can't solve the problem by talking about the security of Israel. You have to solve the problem by talking about the rights of the Palestinians who are giving you the option which can fit exactly within international law, with the international resolutions, which can solve the problem and give the Palestinian people their rights.”
In the interview with Drop Site, Hamdan also outlined Hamas’s rationale for offering a five to seven year truce with Israel, known as a hudna in Arabic. “The main goal for this long term hudna is that each side has to believe that he will not be attacked by the other side, which can at least generate a kind of security. And it's a chance to build trust that there may be a chance for a kind of stability and security,” he said. “That was the experience, for example, in South Africa; it was the experience in Vietnam; it was the experience with every situation of occupation—not only the Palestinian situation. So we are still committed to a very serious political idea, which is the long-term ceasefire.”
Israel Does Not Want the U.S. Talking to Hamas
Osama Hamdan joined Hamas in 1992, a few years after the group’s founding, and has served as its representative in Iran and Lebanon as well as its chief of international relations. He was one of the top advisers to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel last summer in Tehran. After October 7, 2023, Hamdan became a regular fixture on Arabic language media, conducting regular press briefings from Lebanon.
In the wide-ranging interview, Hamdan said that Hamas believes the January ceasefire agreement would have been unlikely had Donald Trump not won the U.S. election. “I think it helped. If Kamala Harris won the elections, I think it would be the same policy of the Biden administration policy, which supported the Israelis totally… they [made] themselves as a part of the war and the fight against the Palestinians,” he said. “We know that the Trump people, they have done a good job in order to make [the January ceasefire] happen. But it's not enough. We have to be honest and serious, it's not enough.”
Hamdan rejected what he called an Israeli propaganda term to describe what should happen in Gaza after the war ends. “The Israelis, they have used this ‘the day after’ term in order to convince everyone that what will happen in Gaza [is] that they will take over the situation within a few weeks and they will get rid of the resistance and there will be an issue of some people who are living on the land of Gaza,” he said. “There is a day after the genocide stopped. And this day is supposed to be a Palestinian day, a Palestinian national day, because we have stopped the genocide and we have to decide by ourselves as Palestinians what we are supposed to do.”
Hamdan said once a political solution is reached to end the genocide, Hamas would be willing to relinquish governance of Gaza to an independent body of Palestinians or a technocratic committee. “There was a suggestion from the Egyptian side to have a committee of leaders, independent leaders, from Gaza, to take control in Gaza for a while and then we can go to general elections. We've said yes, because if they were nationalist and they are working for Gaza’s benefit and the people’s, why not have them?,” Hamdan said. He added that Hamas and other Palestinian political parties had put forward 40-45 names to the Palestinian Authority as nominees for a 15-member body to assume control of Gaza once Hamas formally steps down. They have not received any answer.
“We are ready to handle the things to [assist] this committee, knowing that if that was one of the options which can help the Palestinians to get through this massacre and this genocide, it's part of our duty to do that,” Hamdan said, adding that Hamas supports holding democratic elections, not just in Gaza but across all the territories of historic Palestine.
Hamdan was one of two Hamas officials who led direct talks with Donald Trump’s special envoy on hostages in late February. “When the meetings with Adam Boehler took place, there was a real possibility [for a long term deal]. This is why the Israelis were furious and they were angry,” Hamdan said. “We've talked about politics, not only about the prisoner exchange issue. And I believe he heard something he didn't expect to hear from Hamas.”
Hamdan and another senior Hamas official who participated in the direct talks with Boehler described the meetings as productive and diplomatic. They said Boehler seemed genuinely interested in understanding Hamas’s position, both historically and related to the ongoing negotiations. Since those meetings, however, and the launch of an Israeli smear campaign to portray Boehler as having been duped by Hamas, there have been no further direct talks.
“I believe one of the reasons why the Israelis have assassinated some of the Palestinian leaders was because they have the chance to talk directly to the United States,” Hamdan contended. “They want to prevent any kind of contact between the Palestinian resistance and the United States administration because they have a narrative that those are terrorists.” He said that the direct talks with Boehler and other U.S. officials for the first time circumvented Israeli control of the narrative about Hamas. “The administration discovered that they are freedom fighters and they have a political narrative and they have a political stand, and they are seeking to have a political solution,” Hamdan said. “This is what the Israelis are trying to prevent.”
In the talks, Bohler also raised the issue of Edan Alexander, the dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who enlisted in the Israeli military and was taken captive by Palestinian fighters at the Israeli military base where he was stationed on October 7, 2023. "He's an American citizen, but he was a soldier in the Israeli army," Hamdan said. "Why is he allowed to be a fighter or a soldier in another army, not any other army, an army who occupies the Palestinian lands, who was killing the Palestinian people?"
Hamdan added, “You want to guarantee that no Americans will be held as prisoners because they were soldiers in the Israeli army. So, let's prevent the Israeli army from killing the Palestinians. And that opened the door for a political talk. And I respect that [Boehler] has the courage to talk about this, to listen. He listened carefully.”
Last month, the spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said they had lost contact with the group holding Alexander after Israeli airstrikes targeted the area where he was being held. Hamdan and another senior Hamas official told Drop Site that they have not received any updates on Alexander's fate since contact was lost.
Hamdan and the other Hamas official told Drop Site that the meetings with Boehler were meant to lead to direct talks with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East and the administration’s lead negotiator. Hamas believes Israel succeeded in derailing those meetings. “We expect more from Trump’s administration, not just to keep the security of Israel, not just to listen to the Israeli side. All the world, mainly the United States administration, has to listen to the Palestinians. You have to listen to their side of the story,” he said. “You can't solve it just by listening to Netanyahu who is lying to his own people, not only lying to the Americans or lying to the Arabs, he's lying [to] his own people.”
Hamdan also had sharp words for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In a televised April 23 speech before the Palestinian National Council, the 89-year old leader called Hamas “sons of dogs,” and demanded the movement surrender its weapons and release the Israeli captives. Hamdan said that for the past 19 months Abbas has been reserved in his denunciations of Israel’s genocidal war while attacking and denouncing the Palestinian resistance. “I believe he lost his credibility as a Palestinian leader and he is not anymore respected by the Palestinians,” Hamdan said. “He's just destroying his reputation and his image. I don't know how his sons and grandsons will walk among the Palestinian people after his death.”
Hamdan addressed the Palestinian Authority’s collaboration with Israel in its ongoing assault on the occupied West Bank. He cited the example of the Jenin refugee camp, where Palestinian Authority security forces imposed a siege for 40 days, dismantled resistance cells and seized weapons, clearing the way for an Israeli invasion that lead to the destruction of over 600 homes. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes in the West Bank since January, the largest displacement there since 1967. “I think the Israelis, their main goal is to take over all the West Bank,” he said. “I believe they will be mistaken if they felt for a while that the Palestinian Authority will keep controlling the situation. The people will resist.” Hamdan characterized Abbas’s forces as akin to “security guards” for the occupation, keeping watch over Palestinians “who are supposed to live as slaves,” saying, “No one in the Palestinian Authority is trying to say ‘enough is enough.’ They don't want to resist.”
Hamdan also blasted the recent appointment of Hussein Al-Sheikh, a longtime member of Abbas's ruling Fatah Party known for his close ties to Israel, as vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization, saying it was evidence of Israeli influence. Since 2007, Sheikh has served as the head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs—the main body coordinating with Israeli forces operating in the occupied West Bank. “If you heard him talking in a closed room, you'd feel that you are talking to an Israeli soldier,” said Hamdan. “That is not my words. It's the words of some significant leaders of Fatah.” The Israelis pushed for Sheikh’s appointment as Abbas’s deputy and likely successor, Hamdan alleged, because “they know that he is willing by himself to handle this dirty job on their own behalf.”
Hamas’s official position since 2017 is that it would accept what is commonly referred to as a “two state solution” by Western leaders. The movement has said that if the Palestinian people voted for a state along the lines of the borders as they existed prior to the June 1967 war and with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, Hamas would not oppose it.
“I think the Israelis have shown that they are not willing to have even the two state solution, and they are talking about what they have called the final solution to get rid of the Palestinians. According to those circumstances, everyone expects this will not happen,” Hamdan said, though he added: “I still think that there is a real possibility for that, if the international community wants to keep the order. Otherwise, I think we will face a complete failure for the international order and this will lead to more complicated consequences, not [only] on the Palestinian situation, but all over the world.”
Hamdan said that if the world refuses to hold Israel accountable for the Gaza genocide, it will have far reaching implications. “If they have immunity, it means that others can do the same thing in several places in the world. What if that happened? Some other superpowers, growing superpowers in the world, have given this right to small countries supported by those superpowers,” he said. “I think we will turn the world to a kind of, not a jungle, maybe worse than a jungle, because even in the jungle, the animals, they kill to eat but they don't kill more than this. But when you commit a genocide, it's really a disaster which cannot be explained by words or by saying, ‘Sorry, I have done this and I will not do it again.’”
If a Political Solution Fails, the Resistance Will Continue
Hamdan rejected the characterization that Hamas is waging a war against Israel because it is a Jewish state and said this portrayal was aimed at undermining the legitimate cause of liberation and self determination. “We've said clearly, we are a people under occupation. We are not fighting just because we like to fight or it's a good idea to fight others. We are not fighting the Israelis because, for example, they are Jewish people. We don't have a problem with the Jewish people,” he said. “Even if a Muslim came to occupy my land, I will fight him. It is not related to the religion. It is related to being an occupier or not an occupier.”
Despite reports in Israeli and some Arab media outlets that Hamas indicated it would consider temporarily storing its weapons in Gaza or handing them over to a neutral third party, Hamdan said there have been no formal talks about such a proposal. “What about the Israeli weapons? Are they going to store their weapons, too? What is the meaning of storing the weapons?” he said. “Such an experience happened in Northern Ireland. But there was a real political arrangement, which was accepted by both sides.” Short of that, he said, Hamas will not surrender its weapons until Palestinians achieve full statehood. “If there was a Palestinian state, those weapons would be handed to the Palestinian government,” he said. “Even the [resistance] fighters, they will turn to be part of the army or the police of this government.”
Over the weekend, Netanyahu vowed to intensify Israeli attacks in the coming weeks and to expand the army’s ground operations inside Gaza. On Monday, Israel’s cabinet approved a plan to seize large areas of the Gaza Strip where Israeli forces would remain entrenched indefinitely. Code-named Gideon's Chariots, the operations would also reportedly include forcibly displacing Palestinians into small areas of southern Gaza. An Israeli security official told YNet the details of the plan were revealed as a pressure campaign to force Hamas to accept a short term truce agreement that would result in the release of large numbers of Israeli captives without agreeing to end the war.
These leaked proposals are directly linked to Donald Trump’s scheduled visit to the Middle East slated to begin May 13. Trump will join a series of summits with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. There are indications the U.S. is pushing Israel to enter into a short-term truce with Hamas to serve as a backdrop for Trump’s trip and Israeli officials said their threats to seize “all conquered areas” of Gaza were aimed at forcing Hamas into a deal before Trump’s trip.
In the interview with Drop Site, conducted before the Israeli plans were leaked, Hamdan was emphatic that Hamas will not enter into any temporary agreements that do not include a path to a permanent ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. “Is the United States administration and President Trump seeking to have just a short-term ceasefire or is he willing to have a permanent ceasefire which may lead to a political solution?” Hamdan said. “[Trump] has to make the choice, whether to make the Israelis accept the long-term ceasefire and to go to the political solution which leads to a Palestinian independent, sovereign state.”
The alternative, Hamdan said, is indefinite war that will continue to destabilize the region and impact the rest of Trump’s Middle East agenda. “We are fighting to be liberated from the occupation. If that can happen in a political way, this is good. We will accept that, if it [happens] in a peaceful way. We don't want to be killed. We don't like to kill others. But if it doesn't happen in this way, we will fight,” Hamdan said. “Let's talk about liberating the Palestinians from the occupation. Let's talk about the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian lands,” he added. “This will be the start of creating confidence and stability after that. If this happened, it will be a very good idea. If it doesn't happen, no one can give up his weapons while he's being killed, tortured, jailed.”
If Trump actually wanted to achieve the release of all Israeli captives and a swift end to the war, Hamdan said, he could utilize the extensive levers of U.S. influence over Netanyahu as Israel’s largest financial benefactor and arms supplier. “It's not sufficient pressure. They know that they can do that,” he asserted. “If they said, ‘OK, we are not providing you with the new weapons,’ I think just saying that, it will show the Israelis that the administration is serious and they have to go to the ceasefire.”
Hamdan said that the ultimate responsibility for confronting Israel's apartheid, occupation and war of annihilation against the Palestinian people rests on the international community. And how it handles the fate of Palestine will reverberate for generations to come. "The will of the Palestinians to be liberated is still reserved after 70 years of occupation and it will be until the Palestinians can get rid of the occupation," Hamdan said. "It will be an important turn, not in the Palestinian history, but I think in international history, because it will express a kind of balanced justice in the world. Otherwise, I think it will be a sign of the end of this international order and who knows what that will lead to."
Drop Site News Middle East Research Fellow Jawa Ahmad contributed to this story.
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To listen to the full audio podcast interview or to read the complete transcript of Osama Hamdan’s wide-ranging, exclusive interview with Drop Site, click below:
Hamas on the Record: An Exclusive Interview With Senior Hamas Official Osama Hamdan
It has been 576 days since Israel initiated its genocidal war against the Palestinians of Gaza. The Gaza Strip, a territory roughly the size of Las Vegas, has been reduced to a moonscape of death and destruction with more than 90% of the population dis…
Jeremy Scahill is a top-notch journalist!
Now this is journalism. Thank you for interviewing and publishing. This is why I contribute to Drop Site News. I wish everyone could read this especially people in our govt who have such bigoted misinformed views about Hamas and Palestine and most things in the world. ✌️