Trump claims Israel ‘very happy’ about Hamas disarmament deal, as Netanyahu indicates otherwise
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US President Donald Trump on Friday claimed that Israel is “very happy” about the disarmament deal his Board of Peace inked a day earlier with Hamas, even as Israel has objected to the proposal and Hamas has said the deal’s implementation must begin with Israel complying.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment on the agreement, which would see the IDF pull back from its positions in Gaza as Hamas lays down its weapons and transfers control of Gaza to a technocratic body. But a pair of statements attributed to a “senior Israeli official” have asserted that Israel does not accept the proposal and will not carry out any withdrawals from territory in Gaza as it requires.
One statement, issued by Netanyahu’s office on Thursday, said Israel demanded “the full disarmament of Hamas, including removal of the weaponry from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a condition for any process” of withdrawal. The statement added that the agreement does not include “a sufficient response to those demands.”
A second statement on Friday reiterated that Israel would not pull back its troops.
But asked during a cabinet meeting at his Camp David retreat whether the US has received any assurances from Israel that it will abide by the deal, Trump responded, “We do have an understanding with Israel.”
“Israel is very happy about it. Israel helped us, and they’ve been very good,” he said.
“Most people said that would be a deal that would be undoable. Will it go through its ups and downs? It’s a very complex situation over there… But it’s a great breakthrough. Nobody’s ever thought that it would be possible to disarm Hamas.”
On Friday, the Saudi publication Al Arabiya reported that mediators phoned a senior US official into a recent meeting with Hamas negotiators during which the Trump official pledged to hold Israel to the terms of the disarmament deal if Hamas held its end of the agreement.
The US official assured the Hamas negotiators that the US will require Israel to implement all terms of the agreement, including its withdrawals from Gaza, Al Arabiya said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The report came after Thursday’s statement from a “senior Israeli official” that explicitly rejected the disarmament proposal, asserting that it didn’t meet Israel’s demands for Hamas’s full disarmament.
A second statement issued to Israeli reporters by the “senior Israeli official” on Friday also indicated Jerusalem’s opposition to the Trump-feted disarmament proposal.
“In response to various publications this morning about political progress in the Gaza Strip, Israel has reiterated that there will be no IDF withdrawal from the current Yellow Line without the genuine disarmament of Hamas,” the senior Israeli official said, referring to the line demarcating the zone of Israeli control in Gaza, which is split between areas controlled by the IDF and Hamas.
The latest statement specifies that Israel won’t even withdraw from the current area it holds, let alone from the original demarcation line set in the October 2025 ceasefire deal.
Israel expanded its control of Gaza from 53 percent in October to over 60% now. While the expansion appears to violate the ceasefire deal, the US-backed Board of Peace overseeing the deal’s implementation has seemingly let it slide as it sought to coax Hamas into accepting its disarmament proposal.
Now that Hamas has approved that offer, Israel is expected to pull its forces back to the original Yellow Line that roughly divided the Strip into eastern and western halves. Israel controls the eastern half.
A Board of Peace official indicated that this withdrawal would have to take place in the coming days, in what will be one of the first tests of the agreement. Hamas has warned that it won’t proceed with the weapons handover if Israel doesn’t withdraw to the original Yellow Line.
But the statement from the anonymous Israeli official indicated that Jerusalem does not intend to comply without full demilitarization.
A senior US official warned on Thursday that US President Donald Trump will be “very disappointed” if Israel blocks the advancement of Washington’s Gaza plan.
For Hamas’s part, the terror group said Friday that the first step in implementing the phased disarmament is a commitment from Israel to end its attacks and stop killing Palestinians.
The terror group said its commitment to hand over heavy weapons was also conditional on Israel ending hostilities and withdrawing from Gaza.
For his part, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slammed the disarmament agreement as “unacceptable.”
“After the October 7 massacre, the blood of every Hamas member is on his head, and therefore a commitment to stop the assassinations of the terrorist organization’s murderers is tantamount to agreeing to Hamas organizing for the next massacre,” Ben Gvir wrote on Telegram, adding, “The assassinations in Gaza must continue, the encouragement of [Palestinian] emigration [from the Strip] must happen. Israel must win.”
Yashar party chair Gadi Eisenkot, a former IDF chief of staff who is Netanyahu’s main challenger at the upcoming election, also criticized the deal, and charged that Netanyahu “capitulated in his political weakness without achieving the war’s objectives, instead of ending it from a position of strength.”
The centrist politician also decried the fact that Israelis heard the details of the “fateful agreement” from “foreign publications.”
Asked in the cabinet meeting who Hamas will be giving its weapons to, Trump responded, “the Board of Peace.”
Technically, the disarmament proposal envisions Hamas handing over its weapons to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a new Palestinian technocratic government that is overseen by the Board of Peace.
The International Stabilization Force, a peacekeeping body made of international troops, and Palestinian police will be tasked with assisting in the process,…
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