A pro-Hamas rally at Al-Quds University on March 23. Photo: Tom Gross/Mideast Dispatch.

JNS.org – Despite the recent Palestinian truce between Fatah and the Hamas terror group, the latter stated Saturday that it will not disarm its military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades. A Hamas official also negated any possibility that the Qassam Brigades would merge with the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, Army Radio reported Sunday.

Last week, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that Hamas had been “quietly talking” about dissolving the Qassam Brigades.

But a Hamas official told Al-Monitor, “Dissolving the Qassam Brigades is out of the question, and those asking for that are dreaming. The reconciliation will not be at the expense of the military wings of the resistance, which represents the national army of the state of Palestine.”