US President Donald Trump has disclosed that the Board of Peace has reached an agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.

The board, created and led by Trump, said in a statement that the agreement concludes months of “intensive, good faith negotiations”, and that its focus is now on implementation. It is part of the second phase of a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan includes the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Hamas previously had insisted on implementing the first phase of the ceasefire before moving to discuss its weapons. The group’s founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and it has been reluctant to give up an arsenal, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives, that lies at the heart of its identity.

Hamas announced earlier this month, however, that it had dissolved its government in Gaza and was preparing to transfer power to a technical committee backed by the United Nations as part of the ceasefire deal.

Trump said on social media that the agreement will be carried out “in carefully structured phases.”

“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 neighbors.”
Donald Trump

The US President called the agreement “a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government”.

Trump said that the agreement marked a “major milestone in the implementation of the Trump 20-Point Plan”, and he thanked mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. The plan, unveiled in September last year, included the creation of the Board of Peace to oversee the agreement’s implementation and “handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza”.

Trump’s 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, deployment of an international security force and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave.

Trump announced what he said was an agreement to realize one of the most difficult portions of the Gaza ceasefire while negotiations have stalled and military attacks have escalated in the war that the U.S. and Israel in February launched against Iran, a key sponsor of Hamas.

US officials said smaller groups in Gaza would be disarmed first, before Hamas begins dismantling what they described as its state-like military infrastructure of tunnels, weapons depots and production facilities – a process they acknowledged would take considerably longer.

The officials said the plan was deliberately built on “zero trust” and with verification, with neither Hamas nor Israel moving to the next phase until the other has fulfilled its commitments.

U.S. 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 described by Trump and his top aides when the Board of Peace, an international body established by Trump to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza, was first formed.

The officials were unable to offer specific timelines for the disarmament of Hamas or other groups that operate in Gaza, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but said the Gaza police force would turn over weapons to the technocratic Board of Peace-backed Gaza administration in the next two weeks.

The Gaza police force, however, does not 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.

Officials Optimistic Of Israeli Withdrawal

A US official, asked on a call with reporters about how hopeful the US is that Israel will agree to withdraw from Gaza once Hamas has disarmed, said, “We’re not asking Israel to do anything other than agree to the 20-point plan that they agreed to, initially. And so we’re very confident they will adhere to it.”

If Israel decides not to withdraw, Trump would be “very disappointed”, the official said. The official said the US believes Israel would continue to be a good partner. Though it initially agreed to the plan, Israel remains highly sceptical of Hamas’s willingness to disarm.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House on Tuesday, but neither said much about what was discussed in their first face-to-face meeting since launching the war against Iran.