Hamas said Friday that it reached an agreement to disarm, a major move that would help end the conflict in Gaza — but one that may face many hurdles and will take a protracted time to attain, if in any respect.
The group agreed to a road map so long as Israel also makes concessions, including ending hostilities and withdrawing its troops from the Palestinian territory, a Hamas official and a regional official told The Associated Press. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim confirmed in a post on X that the group agreed to the deal.
Israel has not commented on the deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump announced hours earlier. It comes nine months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to finish the fighting between Israel and the group was signed.
That 20-point ceasefire plan calls on the militant group to give up its weapons and destroy its vast network of tunnels. It also envisions Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, the arrival of a brand new technocratic Palestinian government, the deployment of a security force referred to as the International Stabilization Force and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave.
But negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the implementation of the subsequent phase of the ceasefire deal had largely deadlocked — and disarmament was a significant sticking point.
Disarming would represent a sea change for Hamas, whose founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and which sees its arsenal, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives, as lying at the guts of its identity.
“The agreement shall be carried out in rigorously structured phases,” Trump said on social media. “As disarmament is accomplished, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a brand new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being secure for its residents and its neighbors.”
A duplicate of the agreement obtained and verified by The Associated Press said that every one police weapons shall be transferred to the U.S.-backed Palestinian technocratic committee, referred to as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, upon its arrival within the enclave. It’s not clear when that might occur because it is contingent on other steps.
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A process to decommission and store heavy weapons, military production sites and tunnels will begin after the arrival of the Palestinian committee and the deployment of the ISF. The method shall be linked to an Israeli withdrawal, in phases, from the areas under its control in Gaza, in response to the agreement.
In an announcement Thursday, an Israeli official said that there shall be no Israeli withdrawal from the areas it holds in Gaza — which account for about 60 per cent of the territory — before the militant group is disarmed and the strip demilitarized. The statement was made on condition of anonymity in step with government protocol.
An individual with knowledge of the situation said that Israel is fully involved, but it surely’s not a signatory to the deal, which is between Hamas and a number of other countries helping to barter and guarantee the ceasefire. The person spoke on condition of anonymity so as to discuss the agreement. The deal’s guarantors are the U.S., Turkey, Egypt and Qatar.
Could take years for Hamas to disarm
On Thursday, U.S. and Board of Peace officials, describing the deal to reporters on condition of anonymity under guidelines set by the White House, gave a particularly optimistic assessment of the agreement that laid out a scenario very just like the one outlined by Trump and his top aides when the Board of Peace was first formed. The board, which was established by Trump, oversees the ceasefire in Gaza.
While Gaza’s police force is predicted at hand over its arms, that doesn’t include the overwhelming majority of Hamas militants, and heavy weaponry is just not included in that a part of the agreement, in response to the officials.
As a substitute, the give up of heavy weapons and the decommissioning of Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure are to return later in a process that would take between 200 and 350 days, a Board of Peace official said. That timeline didn’t appear within the agreement obtained by AP.
The Hamas official and the regional official involved in the method said that Hamas and other groups agreed to “collect and store” arms inside Gaza under the supervision of the Palestinian technocratic committee and that weapons won’t be handed to Israel or non-Palestinian parties. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to temporary the media, said this might be a gradual process linked to an Israeli withdrawal.
A U.S. official said Israel, which has been deeply skeptical about Hamas’ willingness to offer up its guns or relinquish control of Gaza, had been consulted at every step of the negotiation.
Nevertheless, the official said Israel was not being asked to do anything greater than what it had initially committed to when it agreed to Trump’s 20-point plan, which essentially involves withdrawing its forces from Gaza and committing to ending airstrikes on the territory.
A member of the Palestinian technocratic committee told the AP on Friday that it was desperate to enter Gaza but was concerned Israel will pose challenges for them. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t allowed to talk to the media. The person said they didn’t expect to enter Gaza for not less than two months.
The committee welcomed the progress Friday but said the work to revive public institutions and services and rebuild the territory can be immense.
Essentially the most recent conflict in Gaza began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed greater than 73,000 Palestinians, including those killed for the reason that ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. The ministry, which is a component of the Hamas-led government and is staffed by medical professionals, doesn’t distinguish between civilians and militants in its toll but says women and kids make up around half of all deaths.
With Israel in charge of much of Gaza, Palestinians are confined to squalid tent camps and heavily damaged urban neighborhoods.
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