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 before 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.