Hamas considering disarmament plan from Trump’s Board of Peace, officials say

JERUSALEM – President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has presented Hamas with a detailed proposal for how the Palestinian militant group could relinquish its weapons, officials say, a potentially crucial step in securing a lasting ceasefire in the devastated Gaza Strip.

According to the U.S.-backed proposal, Hamas and other armed factions would be expected to gradually hand over all of their arms and Israeli forces in Gaza would withdraw.

The Board of Peace, a new international organization created by Trump, was established to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza. Nickolay Mladenov, the board’s high representative for Gaza, discussed the proposal with senior Hamas leaders last week in Cairo.

The board’s proposal, which was first reported by National Public Radio, shows that the Trump administration is seeking to cement the ceasefire in Gaza even as global attention has shifted to the war between the United States, Israel and Iran.

After Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October, disarmament has been a major sticking point in the negotiations to create a durable peace.

Much of Gaza was destroyed over two years of war. The United States and Israel have said that rebuilding the enclave is conditional on Hamas giving up its weapons.

Hamas’ ideology is rooted in armed resistance to Israel, and many of its members view giving up their weapons as tantamount to surrender. It is unlikely that the group would accept the proposal as it stands, analysts said.

“It’s basically calling for the end of Hamas as we know it: a group resisting Israel with weapons,” said Akram Atallah, a Palestinian columnist originally from Gaza. “And it’s not even going to get a Palestinian state.”

Hamas was expected to respond to the proposal as soon as next week, several of the people familiar with the talks said, presumably after Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday, which ends Sunday. Atallah said Hamas would likely make a counteroffer that would buy the group time and avoid a return to full-blown war.

The establishment of a Board of Peace was first mentioned in Trump’s ambitious 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which stipulated an end to Hamas rule in Gaza and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.