Hamas agrees to Trump’s plan to disarm in Gaza – The Latest

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1:05What seems to be in the agreement is that there will be phased withdrawal in step with disarmament. But when is it going to happen? When is it going to begin? That's really unclear. And Israeli media have been pouring cold water on it, saying it's just Hamas play for time. Netanyahu, at the moment, is in a bind. This is something Donald Trump is asking him to do, but he knows it's not palatable. to much of its coalition. From the Guardians today in Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoff. Donald Trump has announced that his Board of Peace has reached an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas, which was a key term for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

1:54Julian Borgia, you're our senior international correspondent. What do we know about this agreement? Well, this has been brokered by the Board of Peace, as you pointed out, which was set up by Donald Trump as a way of implementing the Gaza ceasefire first agreed back in last October. There was a time when Trump was hinting it might address lots of conflicts and be a sort of alternative UN, but that seems to have died down. And it does seem to have focused since then on the Gaza ceasefire, and in particular, the main sticking point of the ceasefire up to now, which has been the issue of Hamas disarmament.

2:37Israel has said that Hamas has refused to disarm and then use that really as a justification to carry on bombing, to keep severe restrictions on the flow of aid going into Gaza and keep on moving their front lines forward. But now they They do seem to have come to an agreement about Hamas disarmament at the same time as the Israeli withdrawal. But when is it going to happen? When is it going to begin? That's really unclear. There's a two-week period now where a verification commission is going to be set up to make sure that everyone is abiding by the agreement. But then there needs to be an entry into Gaza of a technocratic Palestinian administration.

3:22the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza that's been waiting to take over for a long time. But to move in, they also need a police force. And that hasn't been properly trained yet. And the police force needs the support of an international stabilisation force. And that hasn't begun arriving. So let's talk about that, the kind of choreography of that. Because Hamas say they will hand over their weapons to a body that's been created by the Board of Peace. but it is contingent on Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza. So do we have any sense of how that will work? Because that doesn't sound like it's going to be a straightforward process by any stretch.

4:05Yes, I mean, what seems to be in the agreement is that there will be phased withdrawal in step with disarmament. No one is going to do everything on their side before the other side does everything on theirs. We've had various sorts of noises coming out of Hamas' representatives. But that seems to be what's been agreed, that it will be phased, that there won't be any disarmament before or without a corresponding withdrawal. And so this has been a sticking point up to now. Julian, we're talking at lunchtime on Friday, so there may be developments before we air this evening. But we haven't heard from Israel yet about this withdrawal.

4:50But what is your sense about how they'll react and what that withdrawal might look like? Well, the Israeli officials being quoted anonymously on Israeli media have been pouring cold water on it, saying it's just Hamas play for time. You've had the National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir saying the only thing to do with Hamas is destroy them and encourage emigration from Gaza. The hard line of the coalition had never accepted this ceasefire and can be expected to carry on opposing it. So Netanyahu at the moment is in a bind because this is something Donald Trump is asking him to do, but he knows it's not palatable to much of his coalition.

5:43But he was in Washington this week, wasn't he, for the first time since February, the start of the war with Iran. We don't know whether this was discussed between Donald Trump and Netanyahu, but it seems striking the timing that this has happened in the same week. Netanyahu is facing these very crucial elections in October. Do you think those are playing a part in all of this? Because as you say, domestically, he's facing pressure from the far right of his coalition cabinet. Yeah, very much so. The elections loom large in Netanyahu's calculations and any sign of apparent weakness in the face of Hamas will lose him votes in his base and in the core in his core support, which is mostly on the right.

6:34So he's in a difficult position. Now, up to now, he has tended to agree with things and then drag the Israelis on the whole have dragged their heels. They've not allowed a lot of the aid going into Gaza. They have pushed forward their front lines so up to now the tactic has been agree on paper and then create as many problems in the system as possible uh now right whether this will be possible in this in this case for him to agree officially uh is really up in the air and we we don't know as we as as we've talked now we don't know how he's going to play it but he's obviously taking some time to think about it.

7:20Yeah, yeah. And crucial to all of this is the elections of Hamas, who have appointed a new set of a new leadership. Has that been a sort of key part of why the Board of Peace has been able to come to this agreement? Yeah, it does seem like that. Put it the other way, it's one of the reasons why it took so long to come to an agreement. Hamas has been saying we've got to be able to carry our elections to produce a new leadership before we can make big decisions like this. And they carried out a vote in Gaza, in which a lot of the people trying to, or some of the people trying to organize a vote got bombed.

8:01And so it was a drawn out process carrying out those elections. But now they do have a new leader in Khalil al-Hayr, based in Doha, formerly associated with the sort of Gaza wing, a more hardline wing. He was close associate with the Ayah Sinwa, who launched the war in October 23 to begin with, and so triggered the conflict. But Al-Hayah himself is under a lot of pressure from Qatar, from Turkey, from Hamas's, not backers, but his hosts. And so with pressure from both Qatar and Turkey to come to an agreement, it looks like there was not much choice from Hala Al-Hayr's point of view. And just lastly, Julian, I mean, what is the situation in Gaza now?

8:51Because we know that Israel is in control of more than half of the Strip, 53%, and that even in the hours after this agreement from the Board of Peace, there were Israeli strikes that wounded several Palestinians, which again, just makes this feel very fragile and very febile. Yeah, very much so. In fact, they control more than 53 percent since the October ceasefire. They've been pushing forward their lines into Hamas-controlled territory. And so it's now thought they control more than 60 percent and also sort of created a buffer zone beyond that, through which international organizations have to coordinate with them and it's dangerous for Palestinians to enter.

9:37So they control a lot of the territory. They have continued to impose severe restrictions on what can go in. Humanitarian aid has been going in in greater quantities than during the war, but nothing that would help Gaza rebuild. No heavy equipment, not even water pipes, anything like that, which could, in the eyes of the Israeli authorities, have a dual use, be of some advantage to Hamas. So for people, for the 2.1 million Palestinians still locked into this shrinking area, life and life conditions are still horrendous. And, you know, there's no sign in this document when that is going to change.

10:25Yeah, which is very, very distressing to hear. Julian, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. That's it for today. My huge thanks again to Julian Borgia, The Guardian's senior international correspondent. You can keep up with all his reporting over at theguardian.com. And I really recommend today's episode of our sister podcast, Politics Weekly America. Jonathan Friedland will be discussing whether Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be running for president in 2028. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Latest. Today in Focus will be back in your feeds as usual on Monday morning. The Latest will be back on Monday night.

11:00This episode was produced by Annie Levespa and Angus Neal. The senior producer was Ryan Ramgobin and it was presented by me, Lucy Hoff.

11:11This is The Guardian.