'Proposed arms handover off the table, non-negotiable': Hamas official
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Hamas rejects disarmament under Trump's Gaza peace plan, as over 500,000 Palestinians return to Gaza City.
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Displaced Palestinians walk along the coastal road near Wadi Gaza in the central Gaza Strip, moving toward northern Gaza, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025 (AP)
The disarmament of Hamas as part of US President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza is "out of the question," a Hamas official told AFP on Saturday.
"The proposed weapons handover is out of the question and not negotiable," the official said, rejecting Trump's statement that the issue of Hamas' disarmament would be addressed in the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza.
According to the 20-point plan, Hamas members who decommission their weapons are promised amnesty and will be allowed to leave Gaza.
This comes as the ceasefire agreement takes hold in the Palestinian enclave, with a sense of normalcy coming back as Palestinians head back to their hometowns after the end of the two-year war on Gaza.
500,000 people return to Gaza City
Gaza's Civil Defense said on Saturday that more than 500,000 people have returned to Gaza City since a ceasefire took effect the previous day. Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Gaza civil defense, said, "More than half a million people have returned to Gaza (City) since yesterday."
This comes as rescue efforts begin to uncover the true death toll of the Israeli war on Gaza, with authorities adding hundreds of new martyrs that were previously unrecovered under Israeli fire.
Gaza's Health Ministry announced on October 11 that hospitals across the Strip had received 151 martyrs over 24 hours, which included 116 bodies retrieved from under the rubble, in addition to 72 injuries.
According to the Ministry, the total death toll has now reached 67,682, and 170,033 others have been injured since the war began on October 7, 2023.
On Saturday, Bassal announced that the number of missing persons in the Gaza Strip stands at 9,500 after 735 days of relentless war on the besieged enclave.
Meanwhile, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported that the ongoing Israeli aggression has resulted in the mass displacement of Gaza’s population, with many families having been forced to relocate multiple times due to continuous bombardment.
