No one imagined that Hamas would voluntarily hand over its weapons and turn to politics and peace in the Gaza Strip. Even when President Trump announced his Board of Peace and 20-point plan towards a settlement to end the war with Israel, the sticking point, every analyst insisted, would be the disarmament of an organisation designated a terrorist group by the United States, Britain, the European Union, Australia and many other nations.
It’s unlikely that Hamas will cooperate unless Israeli troops withdraw as per the agreement.
Now, after months of negotiations – involving Trump’s two Middle East envoys, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey – and without any fanfare, the seemingly impossible has been achieved.
In what could be on one his most auspicious Truth Social posts, Trump announced that Hamas had finally agreed to disarm.
Nothing in the Middle East is as simple that. There are conditions which at this point might also appear to be unresolvable. For example, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will have to withdraw totally from their current occupation of around 50 per cent of Gaza.
