Trump Claims Gaza Disarmament Deal Amid Major Hurdles
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- Trump announced a phased Gaza agreement calling for Hamas to disarm and Israeli forces to withdraw, though neither Hamas nor Israel immediately confirmed the plan and Israel's UN Mission declined to comment.
- Hamas had insisted the first ceasefire phase be implemented before any weapons discussion and earlier this month dissolved its Gaza government to hand power to a UN-backed technical committee, while retaining an arsenal of rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives.
- US and Board of Peace officials said the Gaza police force would hand over weapons to the Board of Peace-backed administration within two weeks, but the police force does not include most Hamas fighters and heavy weapons are excluded from this phase.
- A Board of Peace official said surrender of Hamas heavy weapons and dismantling of tunnel infrastructure would come later in a process that could take between 200 and 350 days, with no specific timelines given for Palestinian Islamic Jihad disarmament.
- Iran advised Hamas members not to accept the deal but is not in a position to provide much support because it is preoccupied with its conflict with the United States, according to a US official.
- The announcement came nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire was signed, with talks stalled over the ceasefire's second phase; Israel's military currently controls more than half of Gaza, where the Health Ministry says more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack.
Why it matters: This is a unilateral presidential announcement — not a signed agreement — and the gap between the optimistic two-week police-weapons timeline and the 200-350-day Hamas disarmament window shows how much of 'the deal' remains conceptual. Israel, Hamas and Iran all withheld confirmation, leaving the phased plan politically and militarily untested.
