Hamas Agrees to Disarmament Plan in US-Backed Gaza Peace Proposal

What was announced

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump declared a “historic” breakthrough in Gaza diplomacy, saying the US-led Board of Peace had reached an agreement with Hamas for the “complete disarmament” of the group and other armed factions in Gaza. Trump called it “a monumental step toward lasting peace and security” and said the deal would be carried out in “carefully structured phases,” with Israeli forces withdrawing as disarmament progresses. He said the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) would then work alongside a new Palestinian police force to secure Gaza, and that the territory would ultimately be handed to a “new Palestinian government” working with the Board of Peace.

Hamas confirmed it had negotiated “responsibly and positively,” reaching what it called a “national consensus” among Palestinian factions to accept the plan. However, the group immediately conditioned its cooperation: it said it would not implement any part of the agreement unless Israel first meets its own obligations, including ending “all forms of aggression” and withdrawing its forces from Gaza. Israel, for its part, has not publicly endorsed the roadmap and remains openly skeptical that Hamas will genuinely disarm, insisting it will not pull out of Gaza until that happens — creating a chicken-and-egg standoff at the center of the deal.

The mechanics of the plan

The BBC reports it has seen a four-page document, alongside a 15-point roadmap published by the Board of Peace, detailing how disarmament would work. Heavy weapons, military production sites, weapons depots and tunnels would be inventoried and placed into storage, a process contingent on Israel upholding its commitments under the original October 2025 ceasefire. This would be overseen by the Palestinian National Committee — a body of independent technocrats to which Hamas has agreed to cede governing power — working alongside the incoming International Stabilisation Force. Notably, the text specifies that surrendered weapons would go to neither Israel nor any non-Palestinian party. Tunnel networks and weapons manufacturing sites would reportedly be mapped and destroyed, while personal and police-issued arms would be registered and handed over in stages to a newly formed Palestinian police force under ISF supervision.

Key details remain undefined. The document states only that implementation would proceed “in a gradual, sequential, and time-bound manner,” with a detailed schedule to be drawn up within 14 days. The Palestinian National Committee has not yet entered Gaza and has so far operated out of Cairo. It is also unclear whether smaller Palestinian armed factions beyond Hamas will actually comply, and Egypt is expected to host follow-up talks with US, Qatari and Turkish mediators to work out compliance mechanisms for this next phase.

How coverage differs

The BBC offers the most granular detail on the leaked four-page roadmap and frames the story cautiously, with correspondent analysis stressing that “there are many reasons why it might not work,” while still calling it a rare opening for progress given that Hamas has never previously agreed to disarm. Al Jazeera’s coverage leans more heavily on the humanitarian backdrop and Palestinian distrust, noting that roughly 1,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since the ceasefire nominally began on October 10, 2025, and that Israel has restricted aid and expanded its “Yellow Line” incursion in ways experts say may already violate the ceasefire. The Guardian’s coverage centers on Trump’s declaration of breakthrough set against explicit skepticism from Israeli officials, per correspondent Julian Borger. France24’s headlines frame the story around the core tension of whether Hamas will “really” disarm and how doing so would strip Israel of its stated rationale for occupying Gaza, though full article text was not available for those pieces.

Across outlets, there is consensus on the basic sequence — Hamas conditionally agrees, Trump claims a historic deal, Israel has not signed on and doubts Hamas’s sincerity, and implementation details are still being worked out — but they diverge in emphasis: the BBC digs into the technical and political mechanics and Netanyahu’s domestic political stakes ahead of an October election and his ongoing corruption trial; Al Jazeera foregrounds ongoing civilian suffering and casualty figures, citing Hamas-run health ministry data described as reliable by the UN, along with UNICEF figures on child deaths; the Guardian frames it primarily as a Trump-announced deal met with Israeli government doubt.

Why it matters

The plan builds on Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace framework unveiled last September, which created the Board of Peace to oversee implementation and reconstruction funding. Hamas’s willingness to disarm has long been described as the central obstacle to advancing that plan. If real, this would be the first time Hamas has agreed in principle to give up its weapons, potentially unlocking a phased Israeli withdrawal from the roughly 70% of Gaza it currently occupies. But the mutual conditionality — Hamas awaiting Israeli withdrawal, Israel awaiting disarmament — combined with Israel’s non-endorsement, unresolved compliance mechanisms, and the political pressures facing Netanyahu, leaves substantial uncertainty over whether this roadmap will move from paper to practice amid a devastated Gaza and continuing distrust on all sides.

Sources

• Al Jazeera
• France24
• The Guardian World
• BBC World
• France24 (2)
• BBC World (2)
• Al Jazeera (2)
• France24 (3)
• Al Jazeera (3)
• Al Jazeera (4)

Featured photo: Unknown author via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)