CAIRO (AP) — Hamas reached an agreement to disarm, officials told The Associated Press on Friday, a significant move that could help end the war in Gaza — but one that will face many hurdles and could take a long time to achieve, if at all.The group agreed to a road map as long as Israel also makes concessions, including ending hostilities and withdrawing its troops from the Palestinian territory, according to a Hamas official and a regional official. Israel has not commented on the deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump announced hours earlier.It comes nine months after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire to end the fighting between Israel and the group was signed. That 20-point ceasefire plan calls on the militant group to surrender its weapons and destroy its vast network of tunnels. It also envisions Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza, the arrival of a new technocratic Palestinian government, the deployment of a security force known as the International Stabilization Force and the rebuilding of the battered Palestinian enclave.
But negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the implementation of the next phase of the ceasefire deal had largely deadlocked — and disarmament was a major sticking point.Disarming would represent a sea change for Hamas, whose founding charter calls for armed resistance against Israel, and which sees its arsenal, including rockets, anti-tank missiles and explosives, as lying at the heart of its identity.
