Trump claims breakthrough on Hamas disarmament, with Israel military to be replaced by international force

The United States has brokered a pathway to a deal between Hamas and the Israeli government for the Palestinian militant group to lay down its arms in Gaza in exchange for an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the territory, US officials said, a potential breakthrough to end nearly three years of conflict there.

The framework was a potential step toward an Israeli pullout from Gaza and the eventual rebuilding of the territory, much of which has been reduced to rubble.

But neither Hamas nor Israel immediately confirmed that they had signed on, and after years of fighting, there was little trust between the sides.

President Donald Trump portrayed it as “a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY,” in a post on social media.

He said that the agreement envisioned Hamas disarming in stages, with the Israeli military pulling out of the territory gradually and being replaced by an international stabilisation force that would work in partnership with a revamped Palestinian police force to provide security.

A US official said Hamas had agreed to the framework through Egyptian mediators.

The official suggested that the plan didn’t diverge from what Israel agreed to nearly a year ago as part of a deal to free hostages - but acknowledged the possibility that the Israeli position has changed in the meantime.

“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 they don’t, obviously, President Trump will be very, very disappointed,” a US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations. Israel agreed to the plan in September 2025.

But the official acknowledged the challenges: “We’re going to try to do something very, very impossible,” the person said.

The road map leaves major implementation questions unanswered.

US officials characterised it as a step-by-step plan to hand power in Gaza to Palestinian authorities that are not Hamas, which launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 that was met by an intense Israeli response. The composition of the new Palestinian administration was not fully clear, for instance, nor which countries would contribute to the international forces, or when they would deploy.

“This agreement is a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people. At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks,” Trump wrote.

Israel’s sign-on wasn’t immediately clear, with Israeli media citing unnamed Israeli officials suggesting they may not be willing to agree to withdraw from any territory until Hamas fully disarms.

That would be a rejection of the step-by-step plan envisioned by Nickolay Mladenov, the director general of the Board of Peace, the Trump-backed group that was set up in the aftermath of the 2025 deal to release the remaining hostages that Hamas seized during the October 2023 attack.

The political calendar in Israel may create a challenge in the short term. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces elections in October and is likely to face political pressure not to take actions that look like concessions to Hamas before then.

One US official said that the plan may take “200 to 350 days” to implement, saying that the emphasis was more on the concrete steps required to push the deal forward rather than the calendar.

Egypt, Qatar and Turkey have all served as mediators during the extensive negotiations, with Egypt hosting senior Hamas officials in recent weeks for the final drive toward an agreement, U.S. officials said.

Netanyahu met with Trump on Tuesday while he was in Washington for the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham.

The mediation efforts have taken place against the backdrop of the war in Iran, which historically was Hamas’s biggest backer. Its ability to support the Palestinian group has suffered over three years of escalating attacks by Israel and the United States that culminated in the February joint attack on Tehran and its leadership.

The humanitarian situation for the up to two million Gazans who remain packed in the Hamas-controlled part of the enclave “remains brutal,” according to the World Food Program. Residents in the territory are surrounded by the Israel Defence Forces, and “families lack water, sanitation and medicine,” the group said.

The question of which side moves first has posed a challenge to disarming Hamas and securing the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Some of the elements in the proposal unveiled Thursday echoed ideas that were floated by the Biden administration but never successfully implemented.

“This potential announcement by Hamas on disarmament could be meaningful,” Ilan Goldenberg, who worked on Gaza issues in the Biden White House, wrote on X. “The million dollar question will be how Israel responds. And I would put good money on Bibi … doing absolutely nothing to reciprocate.”

The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hamas likewise did not respond.

Israel has long insisted that Hamas disarm first. Hamas had called for Israeli forces to withdraw first. The White House did not clarify how that deadlock will be overcome.

The Israeli military has cleared more than 60 percent of Gaza’s territory of Palestinians, and Netanyahu in May said that he had ordered Israeli forces to extend their control to 70 percent of the land.

Gaza’s Palestinian residents are packed into the remainder of the territory, which is under Hamas control.

Hamas has previously stated that the group is open to “freezing or storing” its weaponry, but has said that such a move would only be taken once a clear path to a Palestinian state is established. The group has also said even if it disarms it will never forgo the “right to resist.”

Under the framework, the group would also disclose the extensive underground tunnel network that runs under much of Gaza so that the tunnels could be destroyed.

The Trump administration has also struggled to stand up a military force that it has said will take over control from Hamas for the management of the territory. The international stabilization force was announced in February, but since then countries that previously committed troops to the force put their commitments on hold indefinitely, including Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania.

The international force would be commanded by U.S. Army Major General Jasper Jeffers.

The administration did not provide updates on these specific commitments, but one official stated that the US has “commitments for over 5000 troops now from different countries that are participating and looking to continue to build it.”