Trump says Board of Peace has reached agreement for disarmament of Hamas

The US president said Israel would withdraw from Gaza “as disarmament is completed” and called the agreement “a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government”.

“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,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump said the agreement marked a “major milestone in the implementation of the Trump 20-Point Plan”, and he thanked mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

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.

The BBC has seen the agreement, which provides for the inventorying and storage of Hamas’s remaining heavy weapons under Palestinian supervision. This potentially removes the most significant obstacle to advancing the Trump-backed peace initiative for Gaza.

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.

According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 1,168 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect last October.

Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Gaza over the same period.

Cairo is set to host a meeting “soon” of the Gaza truce mediators, which also include the United States, Qatar and Turkey, state-linked Al-Qahera News reported early Friday.

Earlier in the day, unnamed sources who spoke to Reuters reported that talks between the mediators and Hamas leaders in Cairo on implementing the US-brokered Gaza peace plan had made rare progress, but an Israeli official said the proposed terms were not satisfactory.