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DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,
US president says Israel will withdraw from Gaza following the disarmament of Hamas.
United States President Donald Trump has said that his ‘Board of Peace’ has reached an agreement to disarm the Palestinian group Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza.
“This agreement is 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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website on Thursday. “At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks.”
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Hamas has not yet officially commented on the statement, but Al Jazeera has received a copy of the document agreed to by Hamas and other Palestinian factions.
Trump framed the disarmament – which he said would take place in phases – as part of the ceasefire deal he brokered in October to end Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and devastated the Palestinian enclave.
Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire agreement, killing more than 1,200 Palestinians, seizing more territory, and continuing to restrict the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza. Six more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Thursday, including two children.
Trump said that Israel would withdraw from Gaza and be replaced by an International Stabilisation Force working with a “new Palestinian police force” once disarmament was complete.
“Under this agreement, Gaza will finally be in the hands of a new Palestinian government that serves its PEOPLE,” Trump added.
Hamas leaders have been in the Egyptian capital Cairo since late last week discussing the ceasefire deal with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye. An unnamed Hamas official was quoted earlier on Thursday as saying that the talks were “positive” and “making progress”.
Hamas had announced on July 6 the dissolution of the body it led that had governed Gaza for nearly two decades.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington DC, said that the arrangement would see Hamas and other groups disarm sector by sector, followed by the recruitment of more Palestinian police officers.
“[The Palestinian police will] be working in association with an international coordination force, the makeup of which has yet to be cleared, but we’ve heard rumours that it could involve the Indonesians and possibly even the Turks, something the Israelis might not be keen on,” Fisher said.
According to the draft seen by Al Jazeera, the implementation schedule for the weapons inventory process must be prepared within 14 days. This deadline may be extended if an international verification commission agrees.
Fisher said there were some obstacles in getting all sides to a point where they were ready to sign on to the agreement, but that it was made clear that things would get a lot more difficult for Hamas financially if they did not approve the deal.
“There was definitely international pressure on Hamas to accept this,” Fisher said.
Earlier, a US official told reporters that there was a lot of Israeli criticism when Turkiye and Qatar were invited to join the Board of Peace, but that the agreement had proven that the decision to include the countries was the correct one.
“I think right now there is finally an alternative to the PA [Palestinian Authority] and Hamas that is really a technocratic, apolitical government that is really looking to do this for the benefit of the people,” he said.
