On the morning of 1 August 2026, a single announcement reshaped the diplomatic landscape of the Middle East: Hamas said it had accepted a deal that would require it to surrender its weapons. The agreement, announced by US President Donald Trump, calls for the complete disarmament of the Islamist movement and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, which currently occupy more than half of the Gaza Strip, confining much of its population to tent camps and shattered urban neighbourhoods. The terms, as described by officials on both sides, would be overseen by the National Committee for Administration of Gaza, a body established under the auspices of Trump's Board of Peace. According to a diplomatic source cited by AFP, the plan would create a formal process for the elimination of all tunnels, weapons depots and arms production facilities.

A committee tied to the Board of Peace would supervise the storage of Hamas's arsenal, while mediators would be expected to hold Israel to its own obligations under the deal. Hamas negotiator Ghazi Hamad framed his movement's concessions in humanitarian terms, saying the group was acting "for the sake of our people in Gaza, to save them from killing and displacement." Yet he was equally explicit about the deal's conditionality: if Israel failed to implement its commitments, Hamas would not implement its own. That mutual dependency is precisely what makes the agreement both significant and fragile — each side is betting that the other will blink first if the process stalls.

The full text of the agreement has not been released publicly, and Israel had issued no official statement at the time of writing.