Comment by US official on amnesty for Hamas members is seen as a ‘significant step’, as focus moves to next stage of Gaza ceasefire.Disarmament by Hamas in Gaza will be accompanied by “some sort of amnesty” for the Palestinian group, a United States official has said.The US official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity on Monday, made the comment after the body of the last Israeli captive in Gaza was recovered, a move that paves the way towards the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal agreed upon in October.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“We are listening to many of their people talk about disarming. We think they’re going to. If they don’t disarm, then they’ve breached the deal. We think disarmament comes along with some sort of amnesty, and candidly, we think we have a very, very good programme to disarm,” the official said, according to the Reuters news agency.Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said the official made the comment during a background briefing by senior officials from US President Donald Trump’s administration and reporters.“A senior administration official told reporters that Hamas agreed to disarmament and that it will happen,” Jordan said.“The same official also alluded to the fact – when the question was raised about whether Hamas could be recognised as a political entity in exchange for [dis]armament – the official said the possibility of amnesty for those Hamas fighters who lay down their weapons was part of the discussion,” Jordan said.“But the official didn’t get into any more …
