Hamas' Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya said on Sunday that the group had a "legitimate right" to hold weapons and that any proposal for the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire must uphold that right.
"Resistance and its weapons are a legitimate right guaranteed by international law and are linked to the establishment of a Palestinian state," said al-Hayya in a televised address on the militant group's Al-Aqsa TV.
"We are open to studying any proposals that preserve this right while guaranteeing the establishment of a Palestinian state."
Al-Hayya also confirmed that the head of the group's weapons production was killed in an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip the day before.
"The Palestinian people are currently going through difficult times and suffering greatly... with the martyrdom of more than 70,000 people, the latest of whom was the mujahid commander Raed Saad and his companions."
Israel announced on Saturday that it had killed Saad, describing him as "one of the architects" of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
It was the highest-profile assassination of a senior Hamas figure since the Gaza ceasefire deal came into effect in October this year.
The US-sponsored ceasefire remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of violations.
The agreement is composed of three phases. In the first phase of the deal, Palestinian militants committed to releasing the remaining 48 living and dead captives held in the territory.
So far they have released all of the hostages except for one body.
Under the second phase Israeli troops would further withdraw from their positions in Gaza and be replaced by an international stabilization force, while Hamas would lay down its weapons.
Israel has repeatedly insisted Hamas "will be disarmed.”
The third phase includes the reconstruction of the vast areas of Gaza levelled by Israel's retaliatory military campaign.
