Trump announces Gaza breakthrough but uncertainty remains

By Alejandra Jaramillo, Tal Shalev, CNN

(CNN) — US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced what he described as a historic agreement to secure the disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza – months after he first announced a US-brokered ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.

“Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.”

As of Thursday evening, Hamas had not confirmed the deal. CNN has reached out for comment.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, another militant group in Gaza, said early Friday that reports of the agreement were “inaccurate.” The group was party to the ceasefire along with Hamas.

A Board of Peace official said Hamas and other armed factions would ultimately hand over their weapons to the committee, with police weapons transferred first and personal weapons last.

While Hamas didn’t formally respond to Trump’s announcement, senior official Ghazi Hamad charactrized the deal as a “concession for the Palestinian people” in an interview with Al Jazeera but said the group will not surrender its weapons until Israel fulfilled its obligations under the agreement, which includes withdrawing troops from the enclave.

“If Israel doesn’t implement, neither will we,” he said.

Hamad also stressed that weapons will be handed over to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a body proposed by the Board of Peace to administer Gaza after Hamas relinquishes control, and that Israel “will not be part” of this process.

Disarming Hamas is a critical step in implementing Trump’s multi-phase peace plan to end the war in Gaza and moving to set up a technocratic government for the strip. Mediators have been trying to negotiate with Hamas for months on implementing the plan, but there is skepticism in the region that Hamas will hold up its end of the bargain.

“If this is implemented, if gathered demilitarized weapons are handed over, the transitional authority takes control. Hamas steps away from government, governance, all of these things are done that actually reignite the prospect for a political horizon for the Palestinian people,” the official said.

Earlier this month, Hamas announced that it would dissolve its government in Gaza, a move that experts say put pressure on Israel as progress from the US-brokered ceasefire plan stalled. Their statement on the move made no mention of disarmament.

For this disarmament agreement, Washington coordinated with Israel “every step of the way,” a US official said, later acknowledging that Israel remains skeptical Hamas will disarm while arguing that “this isn’t really a trust deal.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office for comment.

‘A negotiation conducted over our heads’

An Israeli official told CNN Thursday that the issue of Gaza did not come up during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump at the White House this week.

The official said that, before Trump’s announcement Friday, Israel was demanding 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. A reported 15-point document currently under discussion does not provide an adequate response to these demands, the official said.

There has been no official comment from the Israeli government on the deal but on Friday, Israeli minister Orit Strouk, a member of far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist party, strongly rejected Trump’s announced agreement.

“This is a negotiation conducted over our heads, in complete contradiction to our position, and it is being signed with strange ceremony while expecting it to be binding on us as well. Well, absolutely not,” Strouk, who is also the settlements minister, wrote on Facebook.

The Board of Peace, however, presented the agreement as a historic breakthrough offering security to Israelis and a better future for Palestinians in Gaza.

“For the first time, Hamas officially has committed to an actionable plan for relinquishing all its weapons, which will be followed by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. It holds the promise of delivering significant benefits to the people of Gaza, who have waited for too long for a better future, and security to the people of Israel,” the Board of Peace said in a post on X after Trump’s announcement.

Trump said the agreement would pave the way for Gaza to be governed by “a new Palestinian government” working alongside his Board of Peace, while ensuring “Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks.”

The US president asserted that the agreement would be implemented in phases. As armed groups are disarmed, he wrote, Israeli forces will withdraw and an International Stabilization Force, working alongside a new Palestinian police force, will assume responsibility for security in Gaza.

US and Board of Peace officials on Thursday described the agreement as the result of months of “very delicate negotiations” that produced a “breakthrough,” where there is an understanding of “what needs to be done,” while cautioning it remains “a conditions-based deal.”

Trump in his post thanked mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, as well as his administration, for helping broker the agreement.

“The threat that emerged from Gaza on October 7 will NOT be allowed to rebuild!” Trump wrote, adding, “Under this agreement, Gaza will finally be in the hands of a new Palestinian government that serves its PEOPLE.”

“CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL ON THIS AMAZING DEVELOPMENT, THAT EVERYBODY SAID COULD NEVER BE ACHIEVED!” Trump concluded.

Officials said implementation will take time, with detailed conditions expected to be published within two weeks, adding that movement between phases will occur only after “verified completion of the previous” approved by an implementation verification committee.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Ibrahim Dahman, Nadeen Ebrahim and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.