Hamas official says the group ready to discuss 'freezing or storing' its weapons

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Hamas is ready to discuss “freezing or storing” its arsenal of weapons as part of its ceasefire with Israel, a senior official said Sunday, offering a possible formula to resolve one of the thorniest issues in the U.S.-brokered agreement.

Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ decision-making political bureau, spoke as the sides prepare to move into the second and more complicated phase of the agreement.

“We are open to have a comprehensive approach in order to avoid further escalations or in order to avoid any further clashes or explosions,” Naim told The Associated Press in Qatar’s capital, Doha, where much of the group’s leadership is located.

The deal halted a two-year Israeli offensive in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Asked whether the attack was a mistake, Naim defended it as an “act of defense.”

Since the truce took effect in October, Hamas and Israel have carried out a series of exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. With only the remains of one hostage still held in Gaza -- an Israeli policeman killed in the Oct. 7 attack -- the sides are preparing to enter the second phase.

The new phase aims to lay out a future for war-battered Gaza and promises to be even more difficult –- addressing such issues as the deployment of an international security force, formation of a technocratic Palestinian committee in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory and the disarmament of Hamas. An international board, led by President Donald Trump, is to oversee implementation of the deal and reconstruction of Gaza.

The Israeli demand for Hamas to lay down its weapons promises to be especially tricky -– with Israeli officials saying this is a key demand that could hold up progress in other areas. Hamas’ ideology is deeply rooted in what it calls armed resistance against Israel, and its leaders have rejected calls to surrender despite over two years of war that left large parts of Gaza destroyed and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Naim said Hamas retains its “right to resist,” but said the group is ready to lay down its arms as part of a process aimed at leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state. He gave few details on how this might work but suggested a long-term truce of five or 10 years for discussions to take place.

“This time has to be used seriously and in a comprehensive way,” he said, adding that Hamas is “very open minded” about what to do with its weapons.

“We can talk about freezing or storing or laying down, with the Palestinian guarantees, not to use it at all during this ceasefire time or truce,” he said.

It is not clear whether the offer would meet Israel's demands for full disarmament.

The ceasefire is based on a 20-point plan presented by Trump, with international “guarantor” nations, in October.

The plan, adopted by the U.N. Security Council, offered a general way forward. But it was vague on details or timelines and will require painstaking negotiations involving the U.S. and the guarantors, which include Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.

“The plan is in need of a lot of clarifications,” Naim said.

One of the most immediate concerns is deployment of the international stabilization force.

Several countries, including Indonesia, have expressed a willingness to contribute troops to the force, but its exact makeup, command structure and responsibilities have not been defined. U.S. officials say they expect “boots on the ground” early next year.

One key question is whether the force will take on the issue of disarmament.

Naim said this would be unacceptable to Hamas, and the group expects the force to monitor the agreement.

“We are welcoming a U.N. force to be near the borders, supervising the ceasefire agreement, reporting about violations, preventing any kind of escalations,” he said. “But we don’t accept that these forces have any kind of mandates authorizing them to do or to be implemented inside the Palestinian territories.”

In one sign of progress, Naim said Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority have made progress on the formation of the new technocratic committee set to run Gaza’s daily affairs. He said they have agreed upon a Palestinian Cabinet minister who lives in the West Bank, but is originally from Gaza, to head the committee. He did not give the name, but Hamas officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, have identified him as Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of repeated violations of the deal during the first phase.

Israel has accused Hamas of dragging out the hostage returns, while Palestinian health officials say over 370 Palestinians have been killed in continued Israeli strikes since the ceasefire took effect.

Israel says its strikes have been in response to Palestinian violations, including the movement of Palestinians into the Israeli-held half of Gaza. Three soldiers have been killed in clashes with about 200 Hamas militants that Israeli and Egyptian officials say remain holed up underground in Israeli-held territory.

Naim said Hamas was “not aware” of these gunmen when the ceasefire was signed, and that communications with them were “totally cut.”

“Therefore, they are not aware about what’s going on now on the ground,” he said.

He claimed that Israel has rejected Hamas offers to resolve the standoff and added numerous “conditions” to their surrender. Israel has not acknowledged the negotiations and says it has killed several dozens of them.

Naim said Hamas is committed to “fulfilling its obligations” and claimed that Israel has fallen short of key pledges, including not flooding Gaza with humanitarian supplies and failing to reopen the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Most of the supplies entering Gaza, he said, are goods for private merchants to sell to the few people in Gaza with money, leaving masses of poor people struggling without food or shelter.

Last week, Israel said it was ready to reopen Rafah -– Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world -– but only for people to leave the strip. Egypt and the Palestinians fear this is a plot to expel Gaza’s Palestinians and say Israel is obligated to open the crossing in both directions.

The Oct. 7 attack killed over 1,200 people and took over 250 others hostage. It is the deadliest attack in Israel’s history and remains a source of great national trauma.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 70,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2 million people and caused widespread damage that will take years to rebuild. It remains unclear who will pay for the reconstruction or when it will begin.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas government, does not distinguish between civilians and militants, but says that roughly half of the dead were women and children.

Naim acknowledged the Palestinians have paid a heavy price for Oct. 7 but when asked if the group regrets carrying out the attack, he insisted it came in response to years of Israeli policies going back to the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948.

“History didn’t start on Oct. 7,” he said. “Oct. 7 for us, it was an act of defense. We have done our duty to raise … the voice of our people.”

A Palestinian child rides his bicycle amidst the destruction in the Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians stand on a street in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

FILE - Bassem Naim, an official in Hamas' political wing, speaks in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Smithsonian museum exhibit about the maritime journey that millions of Africans were forced to take across the Atlantic to slavery in the Americas will change later this month, when a remnant from one of the first sunken slave ships ever recovered is taken off display in Washington.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture says a timber piece of the slave ship, the São José-Paquete de Africa, on display in its “Slavery and Freedom” exhibit, will soon be prepared for a trip back to its home museum in South Africa.

The 33-pound (15-kilogram) timber piece has been prominently displayed — seemingly suspended over a dark void, a ballast at its side — as part of a loan agreement to the museum since it opened in 2016. The agreement, examined by The Associated Press, was initially five years and then was extended another five in 2021, ending July 1.

The ship remnant will be among several items sent back to the Iziko Museums of South Africa later this year. Because of its delicate nature, a special crate has to be built for its transport.

Other items from the ship, including the ballasts that served as counterweights for the human cargo, are remaining on display and will be returned to South Africa in two years. A manifest of the cargo on the ship will replace the timber piece.

The last day for museum visitors to see the timber piece on display is March 22.

The São José, a Portuguese vessel bound for Brazil with more than 400 captives from Mozambique, struck a rock and sank in December 1794 off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. Half of the people aboard perished. Survivors were resold into slavery in the Western Cape, according to the Smithsonian.

Recovered in 2015, the ship was identified and studied through the Slave Wrecks Project, an international network of institutions that confirmed it was associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The ship is among the first known wreckage of such a ship that was recovered, in which enslaved Africans died.

The São José piece is in the lowest public level of the museum and is part of the larger “Slavery and Freedom” exhibit, which focuses on the slave trade, including the ships and conditions of transport, as well as artifacts, such as shackles.

The exhibit addresses the Middle Passage, an especially fraught part of the Atlantic Ocean crossing where many of the captives died. While there is no exact count, the number of people who perished during the journey is in the millions, according to Paul Gardullo, the assistant director of history at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The alteration of the slavery exhibit comes at a time when any changes related to history and the American story at federal parks, museums or other public spaces are being scrutinized. President Donald Trump's administration has focused on putting the U.S. in a good light as the country prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The displays, exhibits and programming of several Smithsonian museums are under review as part of an executive order signed in March 2025 by the Republican president, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” The National Museum of African American History and Culture is one of the institutions named in the order.

Michelle Commander, the museum's deputy director, told the AP the exhibit change is entirely related to the loan agreement but understood the timing might raise questions.

“That’s why we’re being transparent in this moment, because we are aware that there are those kinds of questions,” Commander said. “But, as we’ve said, this is really about the conservation needs of that item.”

As part of the loan, Gardullo said, the South African government has a robust cultural patrimony law that dictates how its artifacts and historical materials are treated and how long they can be loaned out.

“The wooden materials are more fragile, and they need a little more close care,” he said.

Recent visitors to the National Museum of African American History and Culture spoke of the power of the display with the slave ship timber, unaware that it would be altered shortly.

Lines wait to enter the darkened gallery, entitled the Middle Passage, where there is a solemnity as people study the dark space where the timber sits next to a ship's ballast. The tangible nature of the exhibit takes it out of textbooks and into reality, said Krystina Hernandez, who was there chaperoning her 7-year-old son’s schoolmates.

Anehtra Reynolds, from northern Virginia, was emotional as she exited the area. She said the presentation, including the artifacts and the darkness of the gallery, gave her a “piece of what they felt in terms of their misery.”

“I think there was a sign in there that mentioned there were some slaves who starved themselves to death in hopes that they would, when they died, they would be returned to their land,” Reynolds said.

Jim Carnes, who was in Washington visiting family from Birmingham, Alabama, said he was familiar with much of the information because he has worked in civil rights education in Birmingham and Montgomery, two places central to the nation's civil rights history.

“The artifacts are extraordinarily powerful,” he said, adding that he's left feeling sadness and anger, not just at the conditions of the enslaved people but at the current push by the federal government to “deny this ever happened.”

Jorge Carvajal, who is originally from Colombia but lives with his wife in south Florida, said seeing the exhibit silenced the stereotypes, especially that Black people are unreasonably angry.

“Empathy is what I’m trying to say. This will help people empathize a lot more. I mean, at least you would hope,” he said.

Commander said the staff at the museum will work to make sure that the exhibit continues to have the same impact with the remaining artifacts and displays.

“The story does not leave the museum because this timber is going to be returned to its owners,” she said.

School children visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture's Middle Passage exhibit, including a wooden timber, the artifact at back left, from the slave ship, the São José-Paquete de Africa, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Jim Cairnes of Birmingham, Ala., speaks to a reporter while visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Anehtra Richmond of Woodbridge, Va., speaks to a reporter while visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

People visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture's Middle Passage exhibit, including a wooden timber, the artifact at left, from the slave ship, the São José-Paquete de Africa, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

School children visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture's Middle Passage exhibit, behind a wooden timber, the artifact at right, from the slave ship, the São José-Paquete de Africa, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)