Hamas Agrees to Trump Plan — With Conditions
Those conditions for Israeli withdrawal are unlikely to be met.
Hamas said Friday it would agree to the disarmament plan President Trump outlined in a Thursday evening social media post — but with conditions to which Israel has not agreed.
A Hamas official and a regional official involved in the talks told the Associated Press that the terrorist group and other armed factions agreed to “collect and store” their weapons inside Gaza under the supervision of a Palestinian technocratic committee, and the weapons will not be handed over to Israel or other non-Palestinian parties.
Laying down heavier weapons — including rockets, anti-tank missiles, and explosives — would come later and is contingent on progress toward a Palestinian state, something Israel’s current government rejects.
Israel had not issued an official statement on the deal as of close of business Friday Eastern time. But National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on X the proposal will not fly.
“The draft agreement published by the ‘Peace Council’ is not acceptable to Israel,” he wrote. “After the October 7 massacre, the blood of every Hamas man is forfeit — and therefore, a commitment to cease the eliminations of the terrorist organization’s murderers is tantamount to consenting for Hamas to regroup toward the next massacre. The targeted killings in Gaza must continue, encouraging emigration must happen, Israel must win.”
The Board of Peace, the international body Mr. Trump created to oversee the Gaza ceasefire, said in a statement Thursday that Hamas “has agreed to a detailed Roadmap for implementing the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire,” a “historic breakthrough” that concludes “months of intensive, good faith negotiations.”
Egypt, which is mediating the talks along with Qatar, Turkey, and the United States, said both sides had agreed to a new 15-point roadmap and that a followup meeting would be held in Cairo “to discuss implementation mechanisms,” according to Britain’s Independent.
Separately, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera the group will not take any steps toward disarmament before Israeli forces withdraw, and Israel will have no role in the disarmament process, which is instead to be run by a Palestinian national committee.
The Israeli government had earlier expressed reservations about the proposal, according to The Times of Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying the 15-point plan did not meet Israel’s demands for Hamas’ complete disarmament and Gaza’s full demilitarization.
The Jerusalem Post reported “senior White House Board of Peace officials” had worked with Israel “the whole time” on the pact, quoting the unnamed officials as saying Israel is “skeptical that Hamas will disarm, but not much they can do except see it happen — Israel signed, Hamas signed, there is a commitment here.” The officials said Hamas’s tunnel network would be destroyed and weapons collected, though no timetable has been disclosed.
A separate Board of Peace official told AP the surrender of heavier weapons and dismantling of tunnels could take between 200 and 350 days — a timeline that does not appear in the written agreement AP obtained.
United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband praised the announcement Friday, thanking the United States for its “tireless efforts.”
“I welcome the announcement that Hamas will disarm,” he said. “The focus must now be on implementing the 20-point plan in full. This includes the withdrawal of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] from Gaza, and respect for the ceasefire by all parties.”
He added that “conditions for the people of Gaza remain appalling” and called on Israel to “immediately end the unacceptable restrictions on aid.” Mr. Miliband also thanked Qatar, Turkey, and Egypt “for their tireless efforts to progress these crucial negotiations.”
The Independent also reported Britain’s First Secretary of State Louise Haigh had earlier called any progress in the negotiations “extremely welcome,” telling BBC Breakfast that “the suffering in Gaza and the wider region has been too extreme for far too long, and the human cost of the war has been absolutely obscene and intolerable.”
A member of the Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with eventually governing Gaza told AP Friday that the panel is eager to enter the territory but concerned Israel would pose obstacles and did not expect to enter Gaza for at least two months.
The war began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in which terrorists killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.
 | A guest post by
|