Hamas disarmament deal agreed in ‘historic’ Trump peace push
Hamas has agreed to a disarmament deal that U.S. President Donald Trump is calling a cornerstone of his broader 20-point Middle East peace plan, but the announcement has already drawn sharp condemnation from within Israel’s own government.
Trump confirmed the agreement would be rolled out in what he described as “carefully structured phases,” though he stopped short of giving any specific timeline for completion. The lack of detail left analysts and regional observers uncertain about what, exactly, comes next.
What the deal actually says
The agreement, framed by Trump’s team as a historic breakthrough, calls for Hamas to progressively surrender its weapons stockpiles as part of a phased process tied to broader political and humanitarian benchmarks. Officials familiar with the plan say it involves at least five distinct stages, with each phase contingent on verification from a third-party monitoring body. Which body that will be hasn’t been confirmed.
It’s a significant ask. Hamas has maintained an armed posture for decades, and any move toward disarmament represents a fundamental shift in the group’s political identity — or at least that’s how it’s being sold.
Israel’s far-right pushes back hard
Not everyone is celebrating. Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called the deal “unacceptable,” arguing it falls well short of Israel’s core demand for Hamas’s complete and unconditional dismantlement before any political process begins.
Ben Gvir’s opposition matters. He leads one of two far-right parties propping up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, and his bloc has threatened before to collapse the government over deals they view as too soft on Hamas.
Still, the White House appears to be pressing forward regardless.
“We believe this is the right framework to achieve lasting stability,” a senior U.S. administration official said Sunday, without elaborating on how Washington plans to manage Israeli domestic opposition.
Trump’s 20-point plan: what we know
The broader peace framework Trump referenced spans issues from Gaza’s governance and reconstruction funding to the status of Palestinian statehood and normalization between Israel and Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia. Trump has been pushing hard for a Saudi-Israel normalization deal, viewing it as a legacy-defining foreign policy win.
The disarmament agreement is presented as Phase 1 of that larger architecture. Phases 2 through 5 reportedly cover the return of all remaining hostages, the lifting of certain economic restrictions, and the establishment of an interim civilian authority in Gaza. Phases 6 through 20 are not yet publicly detailed.
What happens now
The coming weeks will be telling. Netanyahu faces a brutal political calculus — he needs U.S. support and backing from his coalition simultaneously, and those two things may now be pulling in opposite directions.
Hamas, for its part, has agreed in principle before and walked back commitments. Whether this time is genuinely different won’t become clear until the first phase either begins or quietly stalls, as so many Middle East agreements have before it.
