Trump Announces Phased Deal for Hamas to Disarm and Israel to Withdraw From Gaza

President Donald Trump said Thursday that mediators and Hamas leaders meeting in Cairo had reached what he called a historic agreement for the "complete disarmament" of Hamas alongside an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Trump said the plan would be carried out in carefully structured phases but gave no completion date, with an international stabilization force working alongside a new Palestinian police force to maintain security.

The parties themselves were more cautious. Dawn reported that a Hamas official described the agreement as a draft, that United States officials said Israel remained skeptical Hamas would actually surrender its weapons, and that the surrender of heavy weapons and the decommissioning of tunnels could take between 200 and 350 days.

Israeli analysts emphasized the structural gap at the center of the deal. Ynet noted that without an Israeli withdrawal there is no disarmament, and without disarmament no withdrawal, and that the plan covers only heavy weapons, leaving lighter arms in Palestinian hands. A fourteen-day test period, a technocratic government and the link to a political track were all named as points that could collapse the arrangement. Separate reporting indicated the Cairo document is expected to be signed next week.