Trump Says Board of Peace Has Plan for Hamas Disarmament in Gaza

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the administration-established Board of Peace had reached an agreement for Hamas to begin disarming in the Gaza Strip, calling it a major step toward ending the conflict and establishing a new Palestinian administration.

There was no immediate response from either Hamas or Israel. However, the Board of Peace later said in a statement that Hamas had agreed to a "detailed road map" for the disarmament of its forces alongside the phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Trump described the agreement as “a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people.” He added that Israel would gain the security it seeks, with Gaza no longer serving as a base for terrorist attacks.

Speaking to reporters shortly after Trump's announcement, a senior administration official involved in the negotiations said the disarmament process would take place over several weeks. Board officials also cautioned that implementation would require time and acknowledged that Israel remained skeptical about whether Hamas would actually surrender its weapons and relinquish its governing role in Gaza.

Senior negotiator Nickolay E. Mladenov said the agreement followed months of difficult negotiations, stressing that implementation and verification would be the true test of the deal.

“What the agreement says matters. What happens next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real. Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning,” Mladenov said.

The complete disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza has long been one of Israel’s core demands. While the Board of Peace’s proposal seeks to address that issue, many Hamas members have viewed such a deal as tantamount to surrender.

In April, two Hamas officials told The New York Times that the group was willing to hand over some automatic rifles and weapons used by its police and security services, but not the extensive arsenal held by its military wing. Experts estimate Hamas still possesses tens of thousands of automatic rifles, anti-tank rockets, and other heavy weapons.

Former Israeli U.N. international spokesman Jonathan Harounoff said Hamas’s full disarmament had been the main obstacle to Gaza’s reconstruction and warned that the group had broken commitments in the past. He reiterated that Israel considers the complete demilitarization of the Gaza Strip a non-negotiable condition for any military withdrawal.

Trump said the agreement would be implemented in structured phases, with Israeli forces withdrawing as Hamas completed each stage of disarmament.

Negotiations among Hamas, Israel, and the Board of Peace had been stalled over the next phase of the October cease-fire, which was intended to end the nearly three-year war in Gaza.

The conflict began after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people and saw around 250 taken hostage. Israel’s subsequent military campaign has devastated Gaza, with Gaza health officials reporting that more than 70,000 people have been killed.