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Roadmap for Disarmament
A U.S.-backed Board of Peace announced Friday, July 31, that Hamas had agreed to a detailed roadmap for implementing the next phases of the Trump administration's Gaza peace initiative, with the aim of reshaping Gaza's political and security landscape.
“a historic breakthrough”
The Jerusalem Post said the roadmap establishes "a historic breakthrough" and that "for the first time, Hamas officially has committed to a plan for relinquishing all its weapons, which will be followed by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza."
The deal is described as building on UN Security Council Resolution 2803 and the Trump administration's broader 20-point peace initiative, with Israel and Hamas completing commitments stemming from the earlier Sharm el-Sheikh Protocol.
The BBC reported that Hamas agreed to lay down its heavy weapons on condition that Israeli forces fully withdraw from the Gaza territory, while a senior Israeli official said today "there will be no IDF withdrawal from the current Yellow Line without the genuine disarmament of Hamas."
Hurdles and Competing Conditions
The AP reported that Trump said the agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases, with disarmament completed before Israeli forces withdraw and the International Stabilization Force working with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.
In the same AP account, Trump said on social media, "As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force".
Hamas officials tied their willingness to disarm to Israel ending strikes and withdrawing, and CNN reported that senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad confirmed to CNN that the group had reached an agreement to disarm only if Israel ceases fire, stops all targeted killings in Gaza, withdraws its troops to the so-called “Yellow Line” and allows for a surge of humanitarian aid consistent with the October ceasefire agreement.
CNN also reported that Hamad said, "We will not begin any weapons-related steps until Israel implements these commitments. Frankly, if Israel does not implement them, we will not proceed."
Verification, Transition, and Risk
The Guardian said the Board of Peace urged Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian factions to halt all military operations and called for an international verification committee (IVC) to be set up, while it described a 14-day period after all parties have accepted the roadmap.
“What the agreement says matters. What happens next matters even more”
The Guardian also quoted Nickolay Mladenov, saying, "What the agreement says matters. What happens next matters even more," and it added that implementation and verification must be real and withdrawal must move "in lockstep" with decommissioning.
The Times of Israel described how Trump posted on Truth Social that "CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL ON THIS AMAZING DEVELOPMENT, THAT EVERYBODY SAID COULD NEVER BE ACHIEVED!" while also noting that Israel had objected to the agreement's terms and that Hamas had yet to lay down a single weapon.
In parallel, the BBC said the agreement offers rare hope for ordinary Gazans who have endured years of a particularly brutal war, but it emphasized that several important questions remain unanswered about implementation, including who would take possession of the weapons and the sequence of steps.
