This came in an interview with Mashaal on Al Jazeera satellite channel, which will be broadcast on Wednesday evening, at a time when the fate of the ceasefire agreement in effect since October 10 is at stake.
This agreement was supposed to end a genocidal war that Israel, with American support, started in Gaza on October 8, 2023, which left more than 70,000 martyrs and more than 171,000 wounded Palestinians, most of them children and women.
Mashaal pledged that Hamas would take measures to limit any future attacks on Israel from the besieged Gaza Strip, according to Al Jazeera Net, without providing details about the measures.
But he expressed his refusal to disarm Hamas, saying that handing over its weapons would be tantamount to "spirit-striking" the movement.
Hamas insists that it is a "resistance" movement against Israel, which the United Nations classifies as the "occupying power" in the Palestinian territories.
A second, anticipated phase of the agreement includes measures such as disarmament and the deployment of an international force, according to a plan put forward by US President Donald Trump.
Regarding the future of governance in Gaza, Meshaal said that Hamas would not accept a non-Palestinian governing authority, adding: "We informed the mediators that Gaza needs those who can help it rise and recover again."
The second phase involves administering Gaza through a transitional Palestinian technocratic government, operating under the supervision of an executive "peace council" led by Trump, according to his plan.
On Tuesday, the British newspaper "Financial Times" reported that objections from Arab and Islamic countries had prevented former British Prime Minister Tony Blair from potentially participating in Trump's council, despite the latter's desire to do so.
Blair supported the 2003 US-British invasion of Iraq, failed in his mission as envoy of the Quartet on Middle East peace, and there are fears that he will push for the Palestinians to be excluded from running Gaza.
Mashaal stressed that increasing the flow of (humanitarian) aid to Gaza is essential to starting the second phase.
In violation of the agreement, Israel is preventing sufficient food and medicine from entering Gaza, where some 2.4 million Palestinians live in dire conditions.
Israel also bombs Gaza daily, resulting in the deaths of 379 Palestinians and injuries to 992, according to the Gaza Health Ministry on Wednesday.
Mashaal continued that the second phase would constitute the official end of the war, and would include a complete Israeli withdrawal. He stressed that Hamas's main goal was a complete withdrawal, which goes beyond a partial withdrawal to the so-called "yellow line," which would leave Israel in control of more than half of Gaza.
On Tuesday, Hamas announced its rejection of a statement by Israeli Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, in which he said that the yellow line "represents the new borders of Gaza," stressing that Tel Aviv is not committed to the terms of the agreement.
Israel is conditioning negotiations to begin the second phase on the return of the remains of the last captive from Gaza, while Hamas continues to search for him amid massive destruction caused by the war and the lack of necessary equipment due to the blockade.
As part of the agreement, the Palestinian factions handed over the 20 living Israeli prisoners and the remains of 27 others, and in return for the remains, Israel handed over the bodies of Palestinians showing signs of torture and strangulation.
In contrast, there are 9,500 missing Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupation army, and their bodies are still under the rubble left by the Israeli war of extermination, according to the Government Media Office.
More than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners, including children and women, are held in Israeli prisons, suffering torture, starvation, and medical neglect that has led to the deaths of many detainees, according to Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations
