Hamas confirmed Friday it had accepted a proposal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war with Israel, agreeing to hand over its weapons to a Palestinian governing committee and accept the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israel did not immediately respond to the announcement. Earlier Friday, however, an Israeli political source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the proposed agreement did not "satisfactorily" address Israel's demand for the complete demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.
The source also said the issue of Gaza "did not come up at all" during this week's meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump in Washington.
The fate of Hamas' weapons has been one of the biggest obstacles to implementing the cease-fire that has been in place since October.
Late Thursday, Trump announced what he described as an agreement for Hamas' "complete disarmament," calling it a crucial step toward establishing a new Palestinian governing authority in Gaza.
Hamas officials told AFP that a committee established by Trump's Board of Peace to govern Gaza would oversee the storage of the group's weapons.
The group said it expected mediators and the Board of Peace to ensure Israel complied with the deal's terms, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Ghazi Hamad, a member of the group's negotiating team, said Hamas was making "concessions for the sake of our people in the Gaza Strip, to save them from killing and displacement."
"Israel will not intervene in the issue of disarmament. The National Committee is the body that will undertake this task," he said, referring to the National Committee for Administration of Gaza (NCAG).
Despite the October cease-fire, violence has continued in Gaza, with Israeli strikes killing at least four people, including two children, on Thursday, according to health officials.
The Board of Peace confirmed in a post on X that Hamas had "agreed to a detailed roadmap for implementing the next phases of the Gaza cease-fire."
"Our focus now turns to implementation," the organization wrote, adding that the NCAG would "soon begin a phased transition toward full authority."
Trump said in an earlier social media post that once Hamas was disarmed, "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 neighbours."
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza, said Friday the deal "took months of very difficult negotiations."
"What happens next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real," Mladenov wrote on X.
"Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning," he added.
Egypt's state-linked Al-Qahera News reported Friday that Cairo will soon host a meeting of the truce mediators, including the United States, Qatar and Türkiye, focused on the second phase of the cease-fire plan.
Earlier, a diplomatic source told AFP: "We continue to advance the implementation roadmap that offers a balanced and pragmatic path forward, with all weapons decommissioned and a phased transition of responsibilities taking place to hand over full authority to the technocratic government."
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said there would be "no exceptions for certain weapons or certain people. One authority, one law, one weapon."
The roadmap, the source said, would create "a process for the elimination of all tunnels, weapons depots and any weapons production facilities."
The source said a verification mechanism would ensure compliance by each side.
A Hamas source familiar with the talks told AFP earlier that the movement was "awaiting the Israeli response to the amendments we recently submitted to the mediators."
The source said the amendments concerned two articles in the roadmap presented by the Board of Peace.
Regarding the article concerning weapons, the Hamas source said "some points were removed, and alternatives were proposed."
Before the deal's announcement, the Israeli political source told AFP: "Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the full demilitarization of the Strip as a precondition for any process."
