A major rift has emerged over a touted Gaza ceasefire breakthrough after a senior Hamas official confirmed the Palestinian armed movement will refuse any disarmament steps until Israeli military forces fully withdraw from the besieged enclave. Speaking to Al Jazeera, senior Hamas representative Ghazi Hamad emphasized that Israel will have no part whatsoever in any process to surrender the group’s weapons. Instead, Hamad noted, any disarmament initiative will be led exclusively by an independent Palestinian national committee.
The announcement comes amid a deeply broken ceasefire that took effect in October 2025: while Hamas has largely honored the truce terms, Israel has launched an unrelenting bombing campaign across Gaza that has already killed over 1,000 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more, in direct violation of the agreement.
Per reporting from Agence France-Presse, unnamed Hamas sources confirmed that a technocratic Palestinian committee established by the Board of Peace to govern Gaza would act as the sole authority responsible for managing and storing the group’s arms. The framework aligns with a broader ceasefire implementation deal that the Board of Peace announced Friday, confirming Hamas had formally approved the detailed plan for the next phases of the truce.
In a public statement posted to X, the Board of Peace framed the deal as the product of months of intensive, good-faith negotiations advancing a peace plan put forward by former U.S. President Donald Trump. The plan lays out new governance structures, expanded security arrangements, increased humanitarian aid access, large-scale reconstruction and economic recovery for Gaza, as outlined in the Trump proposal and U.N. Security Council Resolution 2803. The Board of Peace called the decision a “historic breakthrough,” claiming it would see Hamas disarm prior to an eventual Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza.
The White House echoed that celebratory framing in a July 30, 2026 post on X, writing “Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. A monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.”
Israeli officials have yet to issue any formal comment on the new agreement, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet have repeatedly stated Israeli forces will not withdraw from Gaza, where the Israeli military has waged what the report terms a genocidal war and ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinian civilians. Back in May 2026, Netanyahu publicly stated his goal for Israel to seize full control of 70 percent of Gaza’s territory, noting “We currently control 60 percent of the Gaza Strip, and my directives are to move toward controlling 70 percent.”
As of July 2026, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 73,000 people in Gaza, with thousands more still unaccounted for and presumed dead under the rubble of destroyed buildings. The small enclave, home to nearly 2 million Palestinians, has been left almost entirely in ruins, with 90 percent of the local population displaced from their homes. Most displaced Palestinians now live in overcrowded tent camps with no access to basic sanitation infrastructure. This report was originally published by Middle East Eye, an outlet that provides independent coverage and analysis of the Middle East and North Africa region.