On February 8, 2026, Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas abroad, made a significant statement at the Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, Qatar, rejecting calls for disarmament and foreign intervention in Gaza. Meshaal emphasized that 'as long as there is occupation, there is resistance,' underscoring the group's stance that resistance is a legitimate right of occupied peoples. This sentiment was echoed across multiple sources, including Al Jazeera and The Frontier Post, which reported Meshaal's assertion that 'criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept.' Meshaal's comments come amid ongoing tensions following a deadly cross-border raid into Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, which led to a US-brokered ceasefire now in its second phase, aiming for the demilitarization of Gaza.