UNITED States President Donald Trump has claimed that Israel is “very happy” with the newly announced agreement involving the Palestinian group Hamas, despite the Israeli government not yet formally agreeing to its terms.
Trump made the remarks on Friday while leading a cabinet meeting at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland. The US president acknowledged that the proposed agreement could experience “ups and down” because of the complexity of the situation but maintained an optimistic outlook on the prospects of the deal.
“We do have an understanding with Israel. Israel’s very happy about it. Israel helped us with it,” Trump said while speaking about the proposed agreement.
Hours before Trump’s comments, Hamas confirmed that it had agreed to the first phase of a deal aimed at bringing Israel’s war in Gaza to a complete end.
Israel, however, has remained largely silent on the proposed arrangement, which includes Hamas surrendering its weapons to a Palestinian committee in exchange for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
At least one senior Israeli official, far-right Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has openly rejected the proposal, describing it as “unacceptable to Israel.” He argued that its provisions were “tantamount to agreeing to Hamas organising for the next massacre.”
In an interview with CNN, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, nevertheless insisted that Trump would “absolutely not” be disappointed by Israel’s eventual response to the proposal.
Danon, however, also questioned aspects of the agreement, stressing that Israel would only support a deal that guarantees “Hamas will not have the capability to even touch this weapon again.”
Despite the reservations expressed by Israeli officials, Trump presented a far more positive assessment while speaking with reporters.
“It’s a great breakthrough. Nobody’s ever thought that would be possible to disarm Hamas,” the US president said.
The preliminary agreement, announced after a meeting involving mediators from Egypt, Qatar, Türkiye and the United States, could represent a significant turning point in the war in Gaza, where at least 73,341 Palestinians have been killed, according to figures cited in the report.
Both parties had previously signed a ceasefire agreement under a 20-point US-backed plan in October last year. However, uncertainty has continued to surround its full implementation amid near-daily reported Israeli violations. According to the report, at least 1,214 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since that ceasefire took effect.
As part of the latest framework, an International Board of Peace has been established to oversee implementation of the agreement, with Trump serving as its chair. In addition, a political body known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza has been designated to eventually supervise day-to-day administrative affairs in the enclave.
However, several critical issues remain unresolved, including the timing of Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza, the surrender of Hamas’ weapons, the deployment of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), and plans for Gaza’s reconstruction.
Under the proposed agreement, Hamas is expected to prepare an inventory of its weapons within 14 days, with the possibility of extensions if required.
The ISF, working alongside a newly established Palestinian police force, would then supervise the transfer of those weapons to a Palestinian National Committee responsible for storing and monitoring the arms.
The agreement also provides for a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza during the implementation process. Israeli troops have remained in the territory since the October ceasefire agreement and currently occupy more than 70 per cent of the enclave as Israel expanded its “Yellow Line” of control.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera correspondent Rosiland Jordan noted that the agreement contains no fixed deadlines for either Hamas’ transfer of weapons or Israel’s military withdrawal.
According to her, those processes would only begin after what has been described as a “changing the security situation on the ground,” a process that would require several stages of Israeli approval.
Jordan further reported that the Israeli cabinet had earlier this week approved the initial deployment of some ISF personnel into Gaza and would also be responsible for vetting members of the new Palestinian police force.
“It has indicated that this change in the security posture or ‘demilitarisation’, as the Board of Peace has called it, will take some time,” Jordan said.
“It’s not going to be until that takes place that you really will see a blossoming, as it were, of a new type of political governance inside Gaza. They don’t want to put a deadline on it, but they say this is the process of how this will take place,” she added.
Also speaking on the development, Harlan Ullman, chairman of the Killowen Group advisory firm, cautioned that the agreement remains fragile and that its success would largely depend on the response of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to face consequential elections in October.
“This is a very fragile agreement. It needs to be nurtured,” Ullman said. “There are many, many aspects that can come apart, but I hope that Trump’s optimism is justified.”