Hamas has said it will surrender its weapons only after Israel fulfills earlier ceasefire commitments, casting doubt on U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a breakthrough disarmament agreement for the Gaza Strip.
A Hamas official and a regional official confirmed the group had accepted a road map toward disarmament, but stressed that any move depends on Israel ending hostilities, withdrawing troops from the Palestinian territory and honoring prior obligations. The conditions add a significant complication to the deal Trump publicized hours earlier.
“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” Trump wrote on social media. “As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force.”
The dispute exposes a persistent gap between how the two sides characterize the arrangement. While Trump framed the outcome as a firm commitment to lay down arms, Hamas presents disarmament as the final step in a sequence contingent on Israeli reciprocity. Israel has not commented publicly on the reported agreement.
Disarmament remains a defining issue for Hamas, whose founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel. The group has long treated its arsenal of rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives as central to its identity, making any surrender of weapons a profound shift.
The development follows nine months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was signed to halt the fighting. That 20-point framework tied to a phased Israeli withdrawal requires the group to hand over its weapons and dismantle its tunnel network, while envisioning the arrival of a new technocratic Palestinian government, the deployment of an International Stabilization Force and a large-scale reconstruction effort.
Negotiations over the next phase of that ceasefire had largely stalled, with disarmament emerging as a central sticking point. The latest road map appears to revive momentum, but officials cautioned that implementation faces numerous hurdles and could take a long time to achieve, if it materializes at all.
The uncertainty underscores how far apart the parties remain even as diplomacy advances. Sequencing—who acts first and under what verification—has repeatedly derailed prior arrangements between Israel and Hamas.
Whether the phased approach holds will likely depend on early confidence-building steps, including troop movements and humanitarian access. For now, the competing interpretations leave the announced breakthrough on fragile ground as regional mediators press both sides toward implementation.