At first glance, US President Donald Trump’s announcement that Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza have agreed to disarm appears historic.
Hamas has never agreed to a concrete disarmament plan, and if it were to materialize it would be an important step toward achieving lasting peace in Gaza after years of brutal war that devastated the enclave. But as with any diplomatic agreement, what matters are the details of the steps and the proposed order. And Hamas and Israel’s reactions suggest the process may not be as simple as President Trump suggested in Thursday’s Truth social post.
“The peace committee has reached a historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in the Gaza Strip,” President Trump said. Once that is complete, “Israeli forces will withdraw and the International Stabilization Force will take responsibility for Gaza in cooperation with a new Palestinian police force,” he added.
There was cautious optimism in the international community and among Gazans who spoke to CNN on Friday. However, reaching a lasting peace agreement in Gaza poses significant challenges.
On Friday, Hamas official Ghazi Hamad confirmed to CNN that Hamas had reached an agreement to disarm. But only if Israel ceases fire, stops all targeted killings in the Gaza Strip, withdraws its troops to the so-called “Yellow Line” and allows a surge in humanitarian aid in line with the October ceasefire agreement. It also hinges on the International Stabilization Force being deployed to the enclave, which has been proposed as a multinational temporary security force tasked with demilitarizing Gaza, he said.
The Peace Commission, a group created by President Trump to help resolve the conflict and closely aligned with his foreign policy, reiterated the need to link Hamas’ disarmament to “Israel’s gradual withdrawal from Gaza-controlled territory.”
In its latest peace plan released on Friday, the peace committee also stressed that Israel should cease military operations in Gaza “without delay” concurrent with the implementation of this peace plan. But as with President Trump’s statements, the exact order of all of this remained unclear.
For Hamad, the Hamas official, “the deal is a package.” He added: “We will not initiate any weapons-related measures until Israel fulfills these commitments. Frankly, if Israel does not fulfill these commitments, we will not proceed.”
Hamad called on the Israeli military to first scale back its operations in Gaza, and said the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a Palestinian technical expert committee appointed by the Peace Commission (a body set up by President Trump to help resolve the conflict), should step in and take over governance of the Strip.
According to Hamad, NCAG will take over control of weapons owned by Hamas police in the Gaza Strip.
Hamad was adamant that Hamas’ heavy weapons would not be abolished or destroyed, but would “be kept under the supervision of a national committee.”
But Hamad reiterated that none of this will happen unless Israel fulfills its obligations.
Hamas later said in a statement that disarmament was also contingent on a number of conditions, including the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state, which Trump did not mention in his announcement and which Israel rejects.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far remained publicly silent after President Trump’s announcement Thursday. But the development has provoked a sharp political reaction in Israel ahead of October’s elections.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not issued a formal response, but hours before Trump’s announcement, Israeli officials rejected key elements of the reported framework and stressed that the “complete disarmament” of Hamas is a precondition for any process. The official said Israel would not withdraw from the Gaza Strip’s “Yellow Line” until demilitarization is complete.
The muted response did not extend to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, which expressed strong opposition to the deal. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir rejected that an agreement had been reached “through a third party” and insisted that the only acceptable outcome was the destruction of Hamas. Minister Orit Struk of the Religious Zionist Party called the deal “dangerous.”
Despite criticism, Israel recently moved forward with elements of President Trump’s Gaza plan. The Security Cabinet on Sunday approved the deployment of a limited international stabilization force of 200 people from Morocco and Uganda to the Rafah test zone. However, Israeli officials described this as an initial and limited measure and stressed that further deployments would require special Israeli approval.
President Trump said the United States has an “understanding” with Israel to begin implementing the peace agreement.
“Israel is very happy about this,” Trump said, adding that it was “very good” that Israel accepted the deal.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Hamas needs to be “actually” disarmed before moving forward, adding that “superficial solutions” will not work for Israel. He told CNN that future talks could discuss events surrounding disarmament and the withdrawal of Israeli troops to the so-called “Yellow Line” in the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli source familiar with the discussions said Netanyahu is unlikely to publicly oppose the arms control deal because he “calculates that Hamas will ultimately violate the terms of the agreement and not keep its commitments.” The person said it was unlikely that Netanyahu would order a withdrawal from Gaza ahead of October elections.
Opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot, who is currently Prime Minister Netanyahu’s chief challenger in the election, criticized Netanyahu’s silence and accused him of hiding the deal from the people, saying it “raises serious questions about whether Israel is a partner in the deal or whether it is once again being forced onto Israel without its involvement.”
US officials say President Trump will be “very, very disappointed” if Israel does not abide by the end of the peace plan.
“We’re not asking Israel to do anything other than agree to the 20-point plan that we originally agreed to, so we’re very confident that Israel will abide by that,” the official told reporters Thursday night.
U.S. and peace committee officials on Thursday described the deal as a “breakthrough” that resulted in an understanding of “what needs to be done” after months of “very delicate negotiations,” but warned that it remained a “conditions-based agreement.”
In his post, President Trump expressed gratitude to the mediators and administrations of Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey for helping broker the deal.
Officials said implementation would take time and detailed conditions would be published within two weeks, adding that transitions between phases would only occur after “confirmation of completion of the previous phase” approved by the Implementation Verification Committee. U.S. officials told reporters they expected to see measurable progress “within the next month or two.”
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas went into effect last October, two years after Hamas launched the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages in Gaza. Over the next two years, Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza killed more than 68,000 Palestinians and injured more than 170,000 others.
In the deal, Israel said its forces would partially withdraw from Gaza to the so-called “Yellow Line” and retain about 53% of the enclave, while Hamas promised to return the remaining hostages. The agreement left unresolved many thorny questions regarding Gaza’s future governance, disarmament, complete Israeli withdrawal, and security.
There has been little sign of progress since the agreement. At least 1,214 people have been killed and 3,977 others injured in Gaza by Israeli attacks since a ceasefire was signed on October 11. Bodies lie unclaimed on the streets, rats run wild and bite children as they sleep, and much of the population remains displaced as much of Gaza is now in ruins.
Nikolai Mladenov, a former UN official tasked with implementing the agreement, warned in May that Gazans faced a “dangerous current situation” as Israel crossed the “yellow line” and further strengthened its occupation of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in May that he had instructed the military to take control of 70% of the Gaza Strip, suggesting it could take longer.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Kit Maher, Ibrahim Dahman, Nadeen Ebrahim, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Sana Noor Haq contributed to this report.
