OVERSHADOWED by the war between the US and Iran is the decision of Hamas to accept a peace formula being pushed by US President Donald Trump that includes the Palestinian group surrendering its arms to a “board of peace.”
Trump announced last week that the agreement for Hamas’ “complete disarmament” is a critical step toward setting up a new government in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas had governed Gaza since 2007, taking over from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). It lost military and administrative control in 2023, when Israeli forces stormed the enclave in retaliation for a murderous spree carried out by Hamas militants in Israeli border towns.
The invasion triggered a humanitarian catastrophe that Gaza has not recovered from. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had vowed to wipe out Hamas and has not wavered from his promise, not even after much of Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland.
After a series of failed attempts, the framework for a plan to transform Gaza into a “deradicalized, terror-free zone” has finally been established. Under a 15-point roadmap announced by the US last week, a “Board of Peace” will supervise the phased pullout of Israeli forces from Gaza, and Hamas will hand over its weapons to the National Committee for Administration of Gaza (NCAG), paving the way for a massive humanitarian and reconstruction effort.
Hamas has long resisted decommissioning, insisting that nothing will stop Israel from carrying out Netanyahu’s objective of annihilating its arch-enemy. Agreeing to surrender its weapons is a major concession. But as a member of the Hamas negotiating team emphasized, it was making “concessions for the sake of our people in the Gaza Strip to save them from killing and displacement.”
The Board of Peace has confirmed that Hamas had agreed to the Trump roadmap. “Our focus now turns to implementation,” the organization said.
The pathway to peace in Gaza, however, will have to be cleared of roadblocks, the biggest of which is Israel’s hardline position on Hamas.
Last week, Netanyahu met with Trump at the White House, but the discussions tilted more toward the US and Israel’s war with Iran.
Ahead of the one-on-one, Trump posted on social media that once Hamas is disarmed, “Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.”
Interviewed after the meeting, Netanyahu could offer only vague descriptions about how it went. “It was one of the best conversations I’ve had with our friend, US President Trump,” he said. The sit-down offered “an opportunity to exchange ideas and also to coordinate on things that are important for the security and for the future of Israel.”
Even as Netanyahu camouflaged the outcome of the meeting, the Israeli military continued to carry out strikes against Hamas militants.
The Israeli police minister, meanwhile, has dismissed the peace deal as unacceptable, and said that Israel’s policy of assassinating Hamas leaders must continue.
Despite the initial enthusiasm about the progress in advancing the peace deal, many political observers remain skeptical.
One analyst said he found it hard to believe that Hamas had agreed to give up its arms, “because in the past that has always been contingent on Israel ceasing the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which is never going to happen.”
A Hamas spokesman told Al Jazeera that the group “would not implement any part of the agreement if Israel’s forces failed to fulfill their obligations.”
Trump’s credibility is also being questioned. “President Trump has spoken in grandiose terms in the past about developments in the Middle East, and they haven’t actually come to fruition,” one political expert said.
It all depends on how Israel will react to the announcement of the peace deal. “If Israel’s unhappy, it’s not going to work” because of the longstanding suspicion between Hamas and Israel, the expert said.
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, said what happens “next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real.”
The peace plan has to work. We owe it to the people of Gaza to end the suffering and hopelessness they continue to endure.
