After President Donald Trump announced Thursday what U.S. and Board of Peace officials described as a pathway to a potential agreement that would disarm Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, a senior White House official told MS NOW that public agreement from Israel is the next and final step to completing the deal.

“Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” Trump said in a Thursday evening post on Truth Social. “This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.”

U.S. and Board of Peace officials, speaking to reporters on a call Thursday night, said the proposal outlines a “road map” and not a finalized agreement. Officials said the proposed framework describes a path to several goals: the full disarmament of Hamas, the establishment of a technocratic Palestinian-run government and the rebuilding of Gaza.

It remained unclear Friday whether Israel would officially accepted the terms, as Trump’s claims of a “historic agreement” on Thursday suggested. A senior White House official with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed Hamas’ acceptance of the deal to MS NOW, although the official said their agreement is entirely conditional on Israel’s withdrawal from the nearly 70% of Gaza it currently occupies.

Deep distrust between the two sides still lingers in the shadow of a vast death toll— an estimated 2,000 Israelis and more than 70,000 Palestinians — in more than two years of fighting since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.

Although Israel participated in the negotiations, according to the White House official, the country has not publicly agreed to the framework or the terms of Hamas’ disarmament, which negotiators consider the next and final step in the deal, the official said.

A senior Hamas official told CNN that Hamas had reached an agreement with the Board of Peace to surrender its weapons so long as Israel adheres to the October ceasefire agreement and “an International Stabilization Force” is deployed to Gaza.

“The agreement is a package,” the official, Ghazi Hamad, told CNN. “We will not begin any weapons-related steps until Israel implements these commitments. Frankly, if Israel does not implement them, we will not proceed.”

The White House official told MS NOW that U.S.-allied Arab countries formed a coalition to pressure Hamas to accept the deal after eight months of negotiations. Hamas has also agreed to reveal the locations of all of its tunnels in Gaza, the officials said, referring to the vast underground network that facilitated militant operations and provided weapons storage during the war with Israel.

In exchange, Hamas will be granted full and complete amnesty, the official said. The technical committee propped up by the United Nations as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal will be in charge of governing the Gaza Strip in the coming months, the official added.

Approximately 5,000 soldiers from more than 13 countries, including Egypt, Morocco and Indonesia, and about 20,000 police officers will be deployed to Gaza to help oversee the disarmament, the official said.

The disarmament of Hamas has held up the U.S.-brokered peace plan, which has largely stalled since it was announced in October and the final hostages were freed. Disarmament has been a precondition for moving to the next phases of the plan, which include providing Board of Peace funds for the reconstruction and rebuilding of Gaza.

Under the proposal, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza would occur in phases under a timetable that has not yet been finalized, according to U.S. and Board of Peace officials. They also claimed that Israel would comply because it had already agreed to the 20-point plan — a multistep blueprint the Trump administration unveiled last September for ending the war in Gaza and establishing a postwar governing and security framework.

Officials said negotiators expect to refine the details of the disarmament implementation over the next several weeks, with progress beginning within one to two months. They estimated the full decommissioning of weapons in Gaza could take roughly 200 to 350 days, and said the timeline could be derailed if the steps described in the road map are not implemented.

“If Phase 1 gets blocked, then we don’t move to Phase 2,” one of the officials said. “It is based on phases and each phase needs to be verified and confirmed.”

Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who sits on the executive panel of Trump’s so-called Board of Peace, helped to negotiate the deal, the White House official said. Blair worked quietly behind the scenes to “stand up” the short-term temporary governing body.

The officials also repeatedly tried to temper expectations on the outcome of the plan.

“It doesn’t mean we will achieve things,” one of the officials said. “It means we will have a chance to achieve things.”

Julia Jester contributed to this report.

This story has been updated to include Ghazi Hamad’s comment.

The post Trump announces Hamas disarmament ‘agreement,’ officials stress terms not final appeared first on MS NOW.

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