Hamas agreed Friday to hand over its weapons under Trump’s Gaza ceasefire roadmap, as Israel withheld official comment and strikes killed 4 people, including 2 children, on Thursday.
Hamas said it had agreed to a deal that includes handing over its weapons to a Palestinian governing committee and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. The deal targets the long-stalled second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan brokered by US President Donald Trump, who on Thursday hailed it as Hamas’s “complete disarmament” and called it a “major milestone.”
Israel had yet to officially comment on the announcement, but a political source told AFP “that there will be no withdrawal whatsoever” from Israeli forces’ current lines “unless Hamas undergoes a genuine disarmament.”
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir denounced the agreement as “unacceptable,” saying it was “tantamount to agreeing to Hamas organizing for the next massacre.”
An Israeli political source told AFP that “the issue of Gaza did not come up” during this week’s meeting between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. Trump maintained on Friday, however, that Israel was pleased about the new deal.
“We do have an understanding with Israel. Israel’s very happy about it,” Trump told journalists at Camp David.
Hamas said it expected mediators and Trump’s Board of Peace to ensure Israel complied with the deal’s terms, which include Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Hamas’s weapons have been one of the key sticking points in fully implementing the ceasefire deal, which has been in place since October.
Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas’s negotiating team, addressed the question of who would manage the disarmament process. “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, known as the NCAG, which was established under Trump’s plan to handle day-to-day governance in the territory. Hamad added that the movement was making “concessions for the sake of our people in the Gaza Strip.”
Since the US-brokered ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 2025, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,100 Palestinians. Despite the ceasefire, violence has persisted. Health officials confirmed that Israeli strikes on Thursday killed at least four people, including two children.
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 ceasefire.” The organization added that the NCAG will “soon begin a phased transition toward full authority.” Under the roadmap, the NCAG carries responsibility for internal security across the territory.
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, acknowledged the difficulty of reaching the agreement. He said on Friday the deal “took months of very difficult negotiations. ” Mladenov wrote, X: “What happens next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real.” He also stated, “Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas welcomed the deal but stated “a lot needs to fall in place for this to work.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it a rare positive development. “The only good news in recent days is the announcement by the US president of an agreement for Hamas to relinquish their weapons and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza,” Guterres said.
Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News reported on Friday that Cairo will host a meeting of the truce’s mediators, a group that includes the US, Qatar, and Turkey. A diplomatic source told AFP the roadmap “offers a balanced and pragmatic path forward, with all weapons decommissioned and a phased transition of responsibilities” to the new authorities. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there would be “no exceptions for certain weapons or certain people.”
The roadmap lays out a process to decommission and store Hamas’s heavy weapons, military production sites, weapons depots, and tunnels, all to be implemented by the NCAG. A new verification mechanism would monitor compliance with every stage of Hamas’s disarmament under Trump‘s Gaza ceasefire plan.
