JERUSALEM, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s latest plan to end the Gaza war calls on Hamas to lay down its arms as Israel withdraws from the territory, terms endorsed by the militants but rejected by Israel, which says it will not pull back until the group’s disarmament is complete.
WHAT IS TRUMP’S LATEST PLAN FOR GAZA?
The U.S. president on July 30 hailed what he described as a breakthrough in talks to advance a 2025 ceasefire plan, saying that Hamas and other Gaza militants had accepted a 15-point roadmap by his so-called “Board of Peace” to give up their weapons.
That 2025 ceasefire plan has reduced violence but failed to end Israeli attacks in Gaza or secure the militants’ disarmament, both the focus of months of painstaking negotiations between the Board of Peace and Hamas in Cairo.
The roadmap is meant to move the original plan forward, with Israel withdrawing from the territory and Gaza, devastated by two years of full-scale Israeli military assault, being rebuilt under a new U.S.-backed Palestinian technocratic government.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN POINTS OF THE GAZA ROADMAP?
The roadmap says Israel and Hamas would immediately cease “all military operations” in Gaza, according to text of the plan published by the Board of Peace. It links Israeli withdrawal from Gaza to the disarming of all militias, including Hamas.
The new technocratic government – known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza – would assume civil governance and oversee a process to “decommission and store heavy weapons, military production sites, depots of weapons, and tunnels”, the roadmap says.
The roadmap also says that a temporary peacekeeping body known as the “International Stabilization Force” would deploy to Gaza to secure areas from which Israeli forces withdraw. The ISF would also train new Palestinian police forces and support aid deliveries.
WHAT IS HAPPENING ON THE GROUND IN GAZA?
Israel has scaled back its attacks in Gaza since Trump announced his plan, with Israeli officials saying that in compliance with it, the military would act against immediate threats but would no longer carry out targeted assassinations.
Despite the October 2025 truce, Israel had been carrying out near-daily air strikes in Gaza — attacks that Gaza health authorities say have killed more than 1,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Four Israeli soldiers were killed by Gaza militants in that time. Hamas does not disclose figures on its war dead.
Israel says its attacks were aimed at addressing threats to its forces in Gaza or killing militants who took part in the 2023 Hamas attacks that precipitated the war.
The October ceasefire left Israeli forces in control of over half of Gaza, since expanded to around two-thirds. There, they have bulldozed remaining buildings, destroyed Hamas tunnels and ordered people out.
Gaza’s nearly entire 2 million population is confined to a tiny strip of land under Hamas control along the coast, most in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
Despite the deadlock on the ground, the Board of Peace has been setting up a base in Israel, near the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, that would function as a logistics and staging area for ISF troops if and when they are deployed into Gaza.
Diplomats say the ISF is still likely months away from deployment. So far, only Morocco and Uganda have pledged troops. Kosovo, Albania and Kazakhstan have committed military planners and medics. Indonesia, which previously offered to send thousands of military personnel for medical and reconstruction roles, says its talks are on hold.
WHAT DO ISRAEL AND HAMAS SAY ABOUT TRUMP’S LATEST PLAN?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Trump’s new plan was unacceptable as it stands but that Israel was exchanging ideas on the subject with Washington. He restated that Israel would not pull out of Gaza until disarmament was complete.
Hamas endorsed the roadmap but protested when the Board of Peace later posted on X that it should give up light weapons such as guns and that Israel would only withdraw once disarmament was complete. The roadmap’s text calls for the two to be linked, in phases.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News on Sunday, Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s Gaza envoy, confirmed the process would be phased and carried out “sector by sector”.
Each time a designated area of Gaza has been verified to be effectively weapon-free, with arms stored and rendered unusable, Israel would be required to withdraw, eventually all the way, Mladenov said.
Hamas says it is bound only to the original roadmap text, which allows 14 days to work out a disarmament timeline. That deadline can be extended, and Mladenov said in the interview that talks were ongoing.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell, Alexander Cornwell and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Rami Ayyub and Alison Williams)
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