Hamas has told mediators it would not discuss proposals for its disarmament before Israel fulfils its obligations under the first phase of President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, sources in Cairo told The National on Friday.
They said Hamas wanted Israel to first pull back from lands it occupied beyond the ceasefire line drawn under Mr Trump's plan, and to allow sufficient humanitarian assistance and reconstruction materials into the war-battered enclave.
The disarmament of Hamas is part of the second stage of the peace plan. The first phase saw the Palestinian militant group release living hostages it seized from Israel along with the remains of others who died in captivity. In return, Israel released 2,000 Palestinians it had detained and the remains of another 300.
The Israeli military also pulled back behind a "yellow line" that left it in control of more than half of the coastal strip.
However, Israel has continued to carry out attacks that have killed hundreds of Palestinians since the ceasefire came into force in October, and seized territory beyond the yellow line.
The second phase of the plan includes handing over the governance of Gaza to a UN-sanctioned Palestinian committee, the disarmament of Hamas and the deployment of an International Stabilisation Force to maintain security in the strip.
However, the implementation of the 20-point plan appears to have stalled, with the US and Israel preoccupied with their war on Iran and the international community focused on a growing energy crisis resulting from Tehran's de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.
The proposals pertaining to the disarmament of Hamas were included in a plan of action put forward by Nickolay Mladenov, the chief envoy of Mr Trump's Board of Peace which is mandated to oversee the implementation of his plan.
The proposals make proceeding with the implementation of other provisions of the peace plan, such as reconstruction and the running of Gaza by an independent Palestinian committee, conditional on progress on the disarmament of Hamas.
Hamas, according to the sources, does not reject the proposals in their entirety, but will not give a final response to them as they are.
"Hamas has shared with Egyptian mediators an alternative vision to deal with the issue of disarmament, envisaging a three-year timeline that begins with the collection and storage of heavy weapons but with Hamas keeping light weapons and firearms for self defence," said one of the sources.
"They are proposing this as a temporary arrangement until the transitional phase in Gaza is complete," said the source, alluding to the yet-unspecified time before presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The final phase of Mr Trump's plan provides for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists his military will not leave the territory before Hamas is fully disarmed.
The Hamas position on Mr Mladenov's proposals was relayed to Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the sources.
The US, however, may move forward with the reconstruction of Gaza without Hamas's disarmament, but only in areas under complete Israeli military control, according to Reuters. Funding pledges for reconstruction, many of which were from Arab Gulf states, were being held up during the Iran war, it said.
Mr Mladenov said in a social media post on Wednesday that all mediating parties had endorsed the plan.
The "international community has supported it, now is the time to agree to the framework for its implementation. For the sake of both Palestinians and Israelis, there is not time to lose," he said on X.
The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent two-year campaign in Gaza killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Gaza's health authorities. It has also demolished most of the strip's buildings, and displaced most of its population, in many cases numerous times.
Israel's conduct in Gaza has given rise to charges of genocide and deliberately starving its population. Israel denies the accusations.
