Donald Trump claims a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, but many hurdles and conditions remained in the Palestinian territory.
“The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases,” the US president 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 neighbors.”
Senior Hamas officials have reportedly agreed to the plan, but the question of whether the group disarms before or after Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza has already emerged as a point of contention. “We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip,” Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas negotiating team, told Al Jazeera.
Earlier an Israeli official told the Reuters news agency that the proposed terms were not satisfactory.
“Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarisation of the Strip as a precondition for any process,” the official said, adding that the plan under discussion did not “provide a satisfactory response to these demands and Israel conveyed its objections”.
