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Disarmament Deal Announced
U.S. President Donald Trump said a new agreement has been reached for the “complete disarmament of Hamas,” followed by an Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, nearly nine months after a Gaza ceasefire was declared.
“Trump says a new agreement has been reached to secure the complete disarmament of Hamas”
Trump said the plan would be carried out in “carefully structured phases,” with Israeli forces withdrawing “as disarmament is completed” and an International Stabilization Force working with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.
Hamas officials said they would transfer their weapons to a technocratic governing body if Israel ends hostilities and leaves Gaza, while the Associated Press reported Hamas said it would begin disarming as part of a deal that also requires Israel to end its strikes and withdraw from Gaza.
The Associated Press also said the agreement would be implemented in stages, with heavy weapons and decommissioning of tunnels and other infrastructure coming later in a process that could take between 200 and 350 days, according to a Board of Peace official.
Sequence and Verification Disputes
The Guardian reported confusion over what should happen first—Hamas to disarm or the IDF to withdraw—after Trump offered no clarity on the matter at Friday’s cabinet meeting at Camp David.
An Israeli official told Reuters that “Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza,” while the Guardian reported that Itamar Ben-Gvir dismissed the plan as “unacceptable.”
Hamas negotiating team member Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera, “We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the strip,” and the Associated Press said Hamas also tied laying down heavy weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government rejects.
In parallel, the Associated Press said Israel has not officially commented on the deal and that a statement Thursday said there will be no Israeli withdrawal before the militant group is disarmed and the strip demilitarized.
Implementation Stakes and Timelines
The Board of Peace said the agreement is a “detailed Roadmap for implementing the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire,” and the Associated Press reported that a copy of the agreement obtained and verified by AP described weapons held by the Hamas-run police being transferred to the U.S.-backed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
“Hamas has "agreed to a detailed Roadmap for implementing the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire"”
AP reported that Israel currently controls around 60% of Gaza, while most of the territory’s 2 million Palestinians are in the other part where hundreds of thousands live in squalid tent camps and destroyed neighborhoods.
The Associated Press quoted Neil Quilliam of London’s Chatham House saying expectations are low that Hamas will actually disarm or that Israel will withdraw from Gaza, adding, “I think that Netanyahu’s silence speaks volumes.”
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported that Trump said “We do have an understanding with Israel. Israel is very happy about it,” but also noted that at the time of writing there had still been no confirmation from the Israeli government that it accepted the agreement.
