Hamas agrees Gaza disarmament road map tied to Israeli withdrawal

Cairo,UPDATED: Jul 31, 2026 17:06 IST

Hamas has agreed to a road map to disarm, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press, in a move that could help end the war in Gaza. The agreement is tied to Israeli concessions, including an end to hostilities and the withdrawal of troops from the Palestinian territory, the officials said.

Israel has not commented on the deal, which US President Donald Trump announced hours earlier. The development comes nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire was signed, but officials cautioned that major hurdles remain and that any disarmament process could take a long time, if it happens at all.

Trump said on social media, "The agreement will be carried out in carefully structured phases. As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbours."

The 20-point ceasefire plan calls on Hamas to surrender its weapons and dismantle its tunnel network. It also envisages Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, a new Palestinian technocratic government taking shape, the deployment of the Stabilization Force, and the rebuilding of the enclave. Talks on the next phase had largely stalled, with disarmament emerging as a major sticking point.

For Hamas, disarming would mark a major shift. Its founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and the group sees its arsenal of rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives as central to its identity.

A copy of the agreement obtained and verified by AP said all police weapons would be transferred to the US-backed Palestinian technocratic committee, known as the Committee for the Administration of Gaza, once it arrives in Gaza. It is not clear when that will happen, as it depends on other steps being completed first. The agreement says the process of decommissioning and storing heavy weapons, military production sites and tunnels will begin only after the committee arrives and the Stabilization Force is deployed. That process would be linked to a phased Israeli withdrawal from areas under its control in Gaza.

In a statement on Thursday, an Israeli official said there would be no Israeli withdrawal from the areas it holds in Gaza, which account for about 60 per cent of the territory, before Hamas is disarmed and the strip is demilitarised. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol. A person with knowledge of the matter said Israel was fully involved in the process, but is not a signatory to the deal, which is between Hamas and several countries helping to negotiate and guarantee the ceasefire. The guarantors are the US, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar.

On Thursday, US and Board of Peace officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under White House guidelines, gave an optimistic assessment of the agreement. The board, set up by Trump, oversees the ceasefire in Gaza. The officials said Gaza's police force is expected to hand over its arms, but this does not include most Hamas militants and does not cover heavy weapons. A Board of Peace official said the surrender of heavy weapons and the dismantling of tunnels and other infrastructure would come later in a process that could take between 200 and 350 days, although that timeline does not appear in the agreement seen by AP.

The Hamas official and the regional official involved in the talks said Hamas and other groups had agreed to "collect and store" arms inside Gaza under the supervision of the Palestinian technocratic committee, and that the weapons would not be handed to Israel or non-Palestinian parties. They said this would be a gradual process tied to an Israeli withdrawal.

A US official said Israel, which has been deeply sceptical about Hamas giving up its weapons or giving up control of Gaza, had been consulted at every stage of the negotiations. The official added that Israel was not being asked to do anything beyond what it had already committed to under Trump's 20-point plan, which includes withdrawing its forces from Gaza and ending airstrikes on the territory.

A member of the Palestinian technocratic committee told AP on Friday that the committee was eager to enter Gaza but was concerned that Israel could create obstacles. The person, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said they did not expect to enter Gaza for at least two months. The committee welcomed the progress on Friday, but said the task of restoring public institutions and services and rebuilding the territory would be immense.

The war in Gaza began after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel's military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government and is staffed by medical professionals, does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count, but says women and children make up around half of those killed. With Israel controlling much of Gaza, many Palestinians remain confined to tent camps and badly damaged urban neighbourhoods, underscoring the scale of what any agreement would need to address.

With PTI Inputs

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