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By Hannah Parry, Ellie Cook, Anna Commander, and Steve Mollman
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President Donald Trump says his Board of Peace has reached a "historic" agreement for the "complete disarmament" of Hamas and other militant groups, roughly nine months after the United States-brokered ceasefire came into force in the Gaza Strip; however, stakeholders have expressed skepticism over how the deal will be carried out.
Hamas officials have said implementation would depend on Israel meeting its obligations under the ceasefire agreement. An Israeli political source told Reuters that Israel would not withdraw from current positions unless Hamas first underwent what it described as a "genuine disarmament."
Negotiators have struggled to advance the ceasefire deal signed in October 2025 into the second stage, which would determine Hamas' future and that of the devastated territory.
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Such an accord would represent a major foreign policy achievement for the Board of Peace, but many questions remain about the terms of disarmament, including the timeline, who would monitor the process, and how Israel would respond.
Under the 20-point plan first introduced by the Trump administration in September 2025, Israel was also required to withdraw its troops from the territory. Israel has not issued an official public response to Trump's announcement.
An Israeli government official told Newsweek on Friday the deal presented the "first genuine opportunity" for progress on a permanent settlement for Gaza, but there was deep skepticism over whether Hamas would follow through on the pledge to disarm.
"To Israeli ears, Hamas' words mean nothing," the official said.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir separately described the draft agreement as unacceptable and argued that Israel should continue assassinating Hamas leaders.
The Trump administration's ceasefire plan had demanded Hamas give up its weapons and its vast network of secret tunnels snaking under the Gaza Strip.
It also called for Israel to pull its troops from the territory, and an international force to arrive alongside Palestinian officials.
Complications in the Deal
Trump called the disarmament agreement "a major milestone" for the 20-point plan, and said it would be "carried out in carefully structured phases."
The U.S. president said on Thursday that a "new Palestinian government" would oversee the strip, with Israeli troops pulling back and the International Stabilization Force (ISF) stepping in to work with Palestinian security teams.
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Hamas announced the dissolution of its governing body that had ruled Gaza for nearly two decades earlier this month.
The talks in Cairo involved Hamas representatives and mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. Egyptian officials said they produced a roadmap for implementing the next phase of the ceasefire.
The Board of Peace on Friday published a 15-point roadmap calling on Israel and Hamas to fully implement the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement and outlining a process under which Gaza's new technocratic administration would oversee the decommissioning and storage of heavy weapons, military facilities and tunnels. Reuters reported that the roadmap said weapons would not be handed over to Israel or non-Palestinian parties.
Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official involved in the negotiations, told Reuters that Hamas would only agree to place its weapons into storage under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) after Israel implemented the first phase of the Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire agreement, including ending attacks in Gaza, withdrawing forces and increasing the flow of aid into the enclave. Hamad separately told Al Jazeera that the negotiations had been challenging and that the group would only disarm if Israel fulfilled its obligations under the deal.
Rajan Menon, professor emeritus of International Relations at the City College of New York, told Newsweek that if a deal "links disarmament to an Israel withdrawal from Gaza, things will get complicated because it's not clear that Israel will fully withdraw from Gaza."
Israel launched its war in Gaza after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and another 251 taken as hostages into the strip.
The subsequent conflict has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials. This number does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. More than 1,200 people have been killed in Gaza since the October ceasefire, and nearly 4,000 others have been injured, Gaza's health ministry said this week.
"It took months of very difficult negotiations to get here," Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian minister who was appointed as the board's point person for Gaza, said overnight into Friday. "What happens next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real."
What Is Trump's 20-Point Plan?
Trump formally unveiled his "Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict," commonly referred to as the 20-point plan, last year, framing it as a path to a full ceasefire. It required the return of all hostages from Gaza, the disarmament of Gaza militants and the establishment of a new international oversight structure.
Phase One (Late 2025): Focused on initial humanitarian and security milestones, including freezing front lines, executing hostage and prisoner releases, and ramping up aid delivery through international channels.
Phase Two (2026): Focused on governance and security transition. Key developments in motion include:
- Establishment of the Board of Peace: Backed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803, the international transitional body chaired by Trump officially launched to oversee administration, security and funding.
- Technocratic Local Leadership: NCAG—a non-political Palestinian committee tasked with managing day-to-day public services—was ratified to run municipal affairs.
- Security Framework: Logistics are actively underway for the deployment of ISF, alongside newly trained local police to oversee demilitarization and facilitate the phased withdrawal of Israeli forces.
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What Is the Board of Peace?
The White House formally established the Board of Peace in January, months after Trump initially floated the idea of a new organization to help end the war in Gaza.
Trump heralded the board as one of the "most consequential" international bodies ever set up, and later said it would also look at how to reach deals bringing other conflicts around the world to a close.
This has typically been the domain of the United Nations, and the Board of Peace was quickly criticized by some rights advocates as taking power away from the U.N., inflating Trump's influence and opening Gaza up to colonial-style governance by Western officials.
Chaired by Trump, the board is made up of a collection of high-profile foreign policy and economic figures, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and oversees the technocratic National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG). This Palestinian-led committee was set up to oversee the day-to-day running of Gaza, separately from the Board of Peace.
Many Western countries refused to join the board, including the United Kingdom, which said it was worried about Russia's involvement in the organization amid its invasion of Ukraine.
Under the board's charter, member states can only be part of the organization for three years unless they contribute $1 billion each, effectively buying permanent membership.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Hannah Parry, Frances Mao, Edward T. Cummins, Sam Wilson.
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