Peloni: Hamas ignores the demand that it disband or disarm because this demands is itself being ignored by all those who agreed to this stipulated demand in the Trump 20 Point plan. Dubowitz indicates that Hamas is triumphalist, and the honest question is why they would not? They planned to prevent Saudi Arabia from entering into normalization with Israel, while forcing the other regional terror forces into a war against Israel. More than two years later, these goals have been met, so too has the Europeans recognizing a Pal state that has no basis in law, practicality or possibility. Additionally, the US persists in demanding that Israel forego any stated application of sovereignty over lands which are historically and legally her own indigenous lands. Where is the victory, decisive or not, over Hamas as it sits unopposed in half of Gaza with its foremost allies in Turkey and Qatar tightly embraced by the Trump administration?
Mark Dubowitz | Dec 30, 2025
Hamas has released an updated version of its apologia for its October 7, 2023, murder of 1,200 people in Israel in a renewed effort to rally Palestinians and Israel’s opponents abroad. The glossy manifesto — published online in English and Arabic — remains saturated with lies, moral inversion, and florid prose. It is unlikely to broaden Hamas’s appeal. But it does reveal something more important: a growing confidence that Hamas can retain power in Gaza, with international backing, as the ceasefire hardens into stasis.
This month’s publication, “Our Narrative… Al-Aqsa Flood: Two Years of Steadfastness and the Will for Liberation,” expands on a nearly identical pamphlet released on Jan. 21, 2024. The authorship — the Hamas Media Office — and much of the content are unchanged. The Oct. 7 massacre and hostage-taking spree is again portrayed as necessary and just; atrocities against Israeli civilians are minimized; and Israel’s counteroffensive is depicted as wanton criminality. To sustain this moral inversion, Hamas relies on falsified casualty figures, selective omissions, and hyperbole.
At 42 pages, the new manifesto is more than twice as long as the original. The added length reflects the intervening 23 months of material Hamas now treats as validation: ICC arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant; unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state by several Western governments eager to isolate Israel; the normalization of the “genocide” libel in international forums; and the ceasefire produced by President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace initiative.
A Revealing Change in Tone
The 2024 version — issued while the Oct. 7 atrocities still dominated headlines — was occasionally defensive, even faintly apologetic. It asked plaintively what the world expected Palestinians to do in response to alleged Zionist crimes and conceded that “maybe some faults happened,” a rare implicit acknowledgment of Hamas’s barbarism.
The 2025 version dispenses with such hedging. It is openly triumphalist.
Hamas ignores entirely the Trump plan’s central demand: that it disarm and relinquish power. Instead, it insists on a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, unrestricted Palestinian control, and comprehensive reconstruction — presenting these maximalist demands as if they were unconditional provisions of the plan itself.
Hamas’s Demands Stretch Beyond Gaza
The Palestinian Authority, which Trump envisions playing a role in Gaza’s future, is dismissed contemptuously as the “Ramallah Authority.” Hamas simultaneously demands deeper integration into the Palestine Liberation Organization, a thinly veiled challenge to Fatah’s long-standing dominance and a bid to reshape Palestinian politics in its favor.
The manifesto also reflects Hamas’s comfort with great power rivalry. China and Russia are praised. Qatar and Egypt are lauded as mediators. Turkey — a NATO member that openly sponsors Hamas and seeks a postwar role in Gaza — is warmly embraced. The message is clear: Hamas sees international patrons and protectors, not isolation.
The timing is no accident. The document appeared shortly after Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt used the Doha Forum to accuse Israel alone of ceasefire violations, and days before Trump hosted Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago to review Gaza and broader regional tensions.
Hamas’s Plan to Wait Out the World
As propaganda, Hamas’s own writing is crude and ineffective compared to the sophisticated influence campaigns waged on its behalf by Qatar — and potentially amplified by Chinese and Russian information operations. Its claims of historical, religious, and military righteousness will persuade only those already committed. Many Palestinians, surveying Gaza’s devastation and Israel’s recovery of all but one Oct. 7 hostage, will see through the self-declared “victory.”
But Oct. 7 itself demonstrated a dangerous truth: when Hamas believes its own rhetoric, it can achieve catastrophic results. The new manifesto suggests Hamas now believes something else as well — that by clinging to its weapons, projecting confidence, and waiting out international interest, it can eventually force acceptance of its continued rule. If they cannot persuade Trump, Hamas plans to exhaust him into tolerating a Gaza endgame in which the terrorist group remains very much alive.
Mark Dubowitz is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). For more analysis from Mark and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow him on X @mdubowitz. Follow FDD on X @FDD. FDD is a Washington, DC-based nonpartisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.
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