Trump’s ‘historic’ deal to disarm Hamas faces uphill climb 

President Trump’s announcement Thursday of a “historic” deal to disarm Hamas is drawing more skepticism than fanfare. 

Hamas said it was prepared to abide by the terms, but only with the buy-in of Israel, which remains skeptical about the deal, according to a U.S official invited into the discussions. 

The agreement would see Hamas hand over weapons in phases, with Israel ultimately withdrawing its military. However, with trust between the two sides at zero, countless hurdles remain to fulfilling Trump’s vision of a demilitarized and reconstructed Gaza. 

Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute who’s been involved in Israel-Palestinian diplomacy since the 1990s, said the initial signals weren’t promising. 

“The formulation of this requires a lot of conditionality — if you do this, we’ll do this — and each side right now is already signaling that they’re not going to start until the other side starts,” al-Omari said. 

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment on the road map, anonymous Israeli officials say there will be no withdrawal of the Israeli military from the “yellow line” established in peace talks last year unless Hamas undergoes a genuine disarmament. 

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim announced on the social platform X that Hamas “agreed to the roadmap.” But he added, “The ball is now in the enemy’s court to fulfill its obligations according to the agreement.”

“So already both sides are kind of positioning for a protracted negotiation for implementation,” al-Omari said. 

Based on Hamas’s statements so far, he said “there is nothing to indicate that they’re willing to really demilitarize,” adding, “To me, it looks more like a diplomatic maneuver.”

Michael Rubin, director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum and a Pentagon official during former President George W. Bush’s administration, shared that skepticism.  

“The elephant in the room is always: Is Hamas sincere, or are they just trying to run down the clock on Trump?” he said. 

“Sorry to throw cold water on the optimists, but Hamas will be fighting in the streets with heavy weaponry again long before Trump gets his Nobel Peace Prize,” he added.  

Some U.S. allies expressed cautious optimism. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the agreement “an important step toward peace and security”........

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