Hamas reached an agreement to disarm, officials told The Associated Press on Friday, a significant move that could help end the war in Gaza
CAIRO — Hamas reached an agreement to disarm, officials told The Associated Press on Friday, a significant move that could help end the war in Gaza — but one that will face many hurdles and could take a long time to achieve, if at all.
The group agreed to a road map as long as Israel also makes concessions, including ending hostilities and withdrawing its troops from the Palestinian territory, according to a Hamas official and a regional official.
Israel has not commented on the deal, which US President Donald Trump announced hours earlier.
It comes nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire to end the fighting between Israel and the group was signed.
That 20-point ceasefire plan calls on the militant group to surrender its weapons and destroy its vast network of tunnels. It also envisions Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, the arrival of a new technocratic Palestinian government, the deployment of a security force known as the International Stabilization Force and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave.
But negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the implementation of the next phase of the ceasefire deal had largely deadlocked — and disarmament was a major sticking point.
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Disarming would represent a sea change for Hamas, whose founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and which sees its arsenal, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives, as lying at the heart of its identity.
“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” Trump said on social media. “As disarmament is completed, 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.”
A copy of the agreement obtained and verified by The Associated Press said that all police weapons will be transferred to the US-backed Palestinian technocratic committee, known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, upon its arrival in the enclave. It's not clear when that would happen since it is contingent on other steps.
A process to decommission and store heavy weapons, military production sites and tunnels will begin after the arrival of the Palestinian committee and the deployment of the ISF. The process will be linked to an Israeli withdrawal, in phases, from the areas under its control in Gaza, according to the agreement.
In a statement Thursday, an Israeli official said that there will be no Israeli withdrawal from the areas it holds in Gaza — which account for about 60 per cent of the territory — before the militant group is disarmed and the strip demilitarised. The statement was made on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.
A person with knowledge of the situation said that Israel is fully involved, but it's not a signatory to the deal, which is between Hamas and several countries helping to negotiate and guarantee the ceasefire. The person spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the agreement. The deal's guarantors are the US, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar.
It could take years for Hamas to disarm
On Thursday, US and Board of Peace officials, describing the deal to reporters on condition of anonymity under guidelines set by the White House, gave an extremely optimistic assessment of the agreement that laid out a scenario very similar to the one outlined by Trump and his top aides when the Board of Peace was first formed. The board, which was established by Trump, oversees the ceasefire in Gaza.
While Gaza's police force is expected to hand over its arms, that doesn't include the vast majority of Hamas militants, and heavy weaponry is not included in that part of the agreement, according to the officials.
Instead, the surrender of heavy weapons and the decommissioning of Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure are to come later in a process that could take between 200 and 350 days, a Board of Peace official said. That timeline did not appear in the agreement obtained by AP.
The Hamas official and the regional official involved in the process said that Hamas and other groups agreed to “collect and store” arms inside Gaza under the supervision of the Palestinian technocratic committee and that weapons won't be handed to Israel or non-Palestinian parties. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media, said this would be a gradual process linked to an Israeli withdrawal.
Israel has not responded but has been deeply skeptical
A US official said Israel, which has been deeply skeptical about Hamas' willingness to give up its guns or relinquish control of Gaza, had been consulted at every step of the negotiation.
However, the official said Israel was not being asked to do anything more than what it had initially committed to when it agreed to Trump's 20-point plan, which essentially involves withdrawing its forces from Gaza and committing to ending airstrikes on the territory.
A member of the Palestinian technocratic committee told the AP on Friday that it was eager to enter Gaza but was concerned Israel will pose challenges for them.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media. The person said they didn't expect to enter Gaza for at least two months.
The committee welcomed the progress Friday, but said the work to restore public institutions and services and rebuild the territory would be immense.
The war in Gaza began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza's Health Ministry said.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government and is staffed by medical professionals, does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its toll but says women and children make up around half of all deaths.
With Israel in control of much of Gaza, Palestinians are confined to squalid tent camps and heavily damaged urban neighbourhoods.