Hamas agrees to disarm under Trump plan / Photo: © AFP/File
Hamas agrees to disarm under Trump plan
Hamas said Friday it had agreed to a deal announced by US President Donald Trump to end its war with Israel, which includes it handing over its weapons to a Palestinian governing committee and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israel has yet to officially comment on the announcement, but a political source told AFP "that there will be no withdrawal whatsoever" from Israeli forces' current lines "unless Hamas undergoes a genuine disarmament".
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir denounced the agreement as "unacceptable", saying it was "tantamount to agreeing to Hamas organising for the next massacre".
The Palestinian Islamist group's weapons have been one of the key sticking points in implementing a ceasefire deal in place since October, but Trump announced late Thursday an agreement for Hamas's "complete disarmament", calling it a critical step toward a new Palestinian government in Gaza.
The Israeli source said that "the issue of Gaza did not come up" in this week's meeting between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Washington.
Hamas officials told AFP that a committee established by Trump's Board of Peace to govern Gaza would oversee the process of storing the Islamist movement's weapons.
The group said it expected mediators and the Board of Peace to ensure Israel complied with the deal's terms, which include Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.
Israel has long insisted on Hamas's full disarmament before its forces pull back, and prior to the announcement, the political source had listed "the removal of weapons from Gaza and full demilitarisation of the Strip as a precondition for any process".
Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas's negotiating team, said the movement was making "concessions for the sake of our people in the Gaza Strip, to save them from killing and displacement".
"Israel will not intervene in the issue of disarmament. The National Committee is the body that will undertake this task," he said, referring to the National Committee for Administration of Gaza (NCAG).
Despite the October ceasefire, violence has continued in Gaza, with Israeli strikes killing at least four people, including two children, on Thursday, according to health officials.
- Focus now on implementation -
The Board of Peace confirmed in a post on X that Hamas had "agreed to a detailed Roadmap for implementing the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire".
"Our focus now turns to implementation," the organisation wrote, adding the NCAG will "soon begin a phased transition toward full authority".
Trump, in an earlier social media post, said that once Hamas is disarmed "Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbours".
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza, said Friday the deal "took months of very difficult negotiations".
"What happens next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real," Mladenov wrote on X.
"Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning," he added.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas welcomed the deal, but said success "depends on the full commitment of all parties".
"A lot needs to fall in place for this to work," Kallas said on social media. "Verifying Hamas' compliance will be a significant challenge. Israel would need to eventually withdraw from Gaza."
- 'No exceptions' -
Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News said Friday that Cairo will host a meeting soon of the truce's mediators, which also include the United States, Qatar and Turkey, focused on the second phase of the ceasefire plan.
Earlier, a diplomatic source told AFP that the roadmap "offers a balanced and pragmatic path forward, with all weapons decommissioned and a phased transition of responsibilities" to the new authorities.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said there would be "no exceptions for certain weapons or certain people".
The roadmap, the source said, would create "a process for the elimination of all tunnels, depots of weapons and any weapons production facilities".
The source said a verification mechanism would ensure compliance by each side.
A Hamas source familiar with the talks told AFP earlier that the movement was "awaiting the Israeli response to the amendments we recently submitted to the mediators".
The source said the amendments concerned two articles in the roadmap presented by the Board of Peace.
Regarding the article concerning weapons, the Hamas source said that "some points were removed, and alternatives were proposed".
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(U.Kabuchyn--DTZ)
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