US President Donald Trump says the Board of Peace has reached an agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.
A senior Hamas official has told the BBC the group has agreed to the Board of Peace’s plan to completely disarm in Gaza and that an official statement would be released soon. Israel has yet to comment.
The board said in a statement that the agreement concludes months of “intensive, good faith negotiations”, and that the board’s focus is now on implementation.
It is part of the second phase of a US-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan includes the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the reconstruction of Gaza.
The US president said Israel would withdraw from Gaza “as disarmament is completed” and called the agreement “a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government”.
“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,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump said the agreement marked a “major milestone in the implementation of the Trump 20-Point Plan”, and he thanked mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.
A US official, asked on a call with reporters about how hopeful the US is that Israel will agree to withdraw from Gaza once Hamas has disarmed, said, “We’re not asking Israel to do anything other than agree to the 20-point plan that they agreed to, initially. And so we’re very confident they will adhere to it.”
If Israel decides not to withdraw, Trump would be “very disappointed”, the official said. The official said the US believes Israel would continue to be a good partner.
The BBC has seen the agreement, which provides for the inventorying and storage of Hamas’s remaining heavy weapons under Palestinian supervision. This potentially removes the most significant obstacle to advancing the Trump-backed peace initiative for Gaza.
US officials said smaller groups in Gaza would be disarmed first, before Hamas begins dismantling what they described as its state-like military infrastructure of tunnels, weapons depots and production facilities – a process they acknowledged would take considerably longer.
The officials said the plan was deliberately built on “zero trust” and with verification, with neither Hamas nor Israel moving to the next phase until the other has fulfilled its commitments.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, at least 1,168 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect last October.
Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Gaza over the same period.
Cairo is set to host a meeting “soon” of the Gaza truce mediators, which also include the United States, Qatar and Turkey, state-linked Al-Qahera News reported early Friday.
Earlier in the day, unnamed sources who spoke to Reuters reported that talks between the mediators and Hamas leaders in Cairo on implementing the US-brokered Gaza peace plan had made rare progress, but an Israeli official said the proposed terms were not satisfactory.
Following Trump’s announcement, the Times of Israel reported, citing an unnamed source, that the agreement had been signed between negotiators from Hamas as well as the board and mediating countries.
But it said that “an Israeli office” issued a statement saying the disarmament proposal did not meet Jerusalem’s demands.
Earlier in the day, Israeli media reported that Israel was opposed to a deal that was being discussed with Hamas.
In April this year, Hamas rejected the disarmament plan of a top figure in Trump’s Gaza peace efforts, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told the BBC.
Earlier this month, Hamas elected a new leader, Khalil al-Hayya. He replaced Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by the Israeli military in Gaza in October 2024. As the chief negotiator for Hamas, Hayya led the group’s delegations at indirect ceasefire talks, meeting mediators in Egypt and Qatar.
The BBC reported earlier this year that the board was originally thought to be aimed at helping end the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction. But its proposed charter does not mention the Palestinian territory and appears to be designed to supplant functions of the UN.
Hamas led an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Israel responded by launching a massive military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 73,290 people have been killed, including 21,280 children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.
In 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC), issued arrest warrants over alleged war crimes for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and as well as the military commander of Hamas, Mohammed Deif. Israel has said Deif was killed in an air strike.
Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the ICC’s decision as “antisemitic”, while Hamas said the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant had set an “important historical precedent”.
A UN commission of inquiry said in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as “distorted and false”.
Credit: Yahoo News