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Background

The Gaza ceasefire and the disarmament of Hamas

The ceasefire rests on a twenty-point plan that ties Israeli withdrawal to a disarmament the plan leaves to monitors it never names. A separate agreement in July 2026 was meant to settle the order of steps, and Israel says it never agreed to that one. A monitor was proposed in August 2026, an American military general, and Netanyahu's office did not confirm it.

Resolution 2803 endorses a twenty-point plan and records that the parties have accepted it. A separate disarmament agreement followed on 30 July 2026, and Netanyahu says Israel did not agree to that one. The plan itself never names the independent monitors who are to verify that Hamas has disarmed. In August 2026 a senior Israeli official said the handover should be supervised by an American military general, unnamed.
The Gaza ceasefire and the disarmament of Hamas

The Gaza ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025. It rests on President Donald Trump's Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict of 29 September 2025, in twenty numbered points. The Security Council endorsed the plan on 17 November 2025 in resolution 2803, by thirteen votes to none, with China and Russia abstaining. The resolution carries the twenty points as its annex 1.

The plan creates the Board of Peace, a transitional administration chaired by Trump and given international legal personality by the resolution. It is made up of states: the BBC reported on 31 July 2026 that its founding members besides the United States include Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. No Palestinian sits on it. The Board supervises a technocratic Palestinian committee that runs Gaza's administration. The Board also sets the framework for reconstruction and gives strategic guidance to an International Stabilization Force.

Points 13 and 16 set out what each side owes. Hamas and the other factions give up any role in governance, tunnels and weapons plants are destroyed, and weapons are put permanently beyond use through an agreed decommissioning process, verified by independent monitors the plan never names. Israeli forces withdraw in stages against standards, milestones and timeframes linked to demilitarisation, agreed between the Israeli army, the stabilisation force, the guarantors and the United States. No Palestinian body is on that list. The plan never says who the guarantors are.

The disarmament agreement announced on 30 July 2026 is a second document, not the plan, and AP obtained and verified a copy. Police weapons pass to the Palestinian technocratic committee, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, when it arrives in Gaza. Heavy weapons are decommissioned and stored after the committee arrives and international forces deploy, and the process is tied to a phased Israeli withdrawal. The National reported that Israel took no part in those talks; US officials said Israel had been consulted at every step.

On 4 August 2026 Netanyahu said Israel had not agreed and would not withdraw from its current positions until Hamas was completely disarmed. The killing has not stopped. Gaza's health ministry counted 1,209 Palestinians killed between 10 October 2025 and 29 July 2026. The UN humanitarian office OCHA reports continuing military operations near the line it calls the Yellow Line, and says that line has moved. Its report of 31 July 2026 does not say where the line runs.

A monitor was proposed in August 2026 and has not been confirmed. A senior Israeli official told NBC News that at a meeting on 17 August Netanyahu and Jared Kushner agreed that demilitarisation should begin with a Hamas weapons handover supervised by an American military general. No general was named. Netanyahu's office did not confirm that account, though it did confirm that two working groups had been agreed, and it said disarmament should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction happens in Gaza. Nothing in the account addresses verification, which the plan left to monitors it never named. The deadlock under it is stated openly by both sides: Hamas says handing over heavy weapons depends on international recognition of a Palestinian state, and Israel's government rejects that.

The order of steps is contested in practice as well as on paper. On 23 September 2026 the Board of Peace's board of governors unveiled a first plan worth 2.45 billion dollars, 66 projects across infrastructure, education and health, with a six-month first phase rolling out sector by sector from Rafah, then Khan Younis, the central camps, Gaza City and northern Gaza. It put physical reconstruction at 35.2 billion dollars in the medium term and 71.4 billion over the next decade. Kushner, an executive board member, said Hamas had agreed to give up the weapons but that it needed to be implemented. Nickolay Mladenov, the Board's high representative for Gaza, put the goal as a demilitarised Gaza under civilian control. Nothing makes the 2.45 billion dollars conditional on disarmament, which sits awkwardly beside Netanyahu's office insisting nothing precede it.

”What the agreement says matters. What happens next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real. Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning”
Nickolay MladenovHigh Representative in Gaza for the Board of Peace

The numbers

The Security Council vote on resolution 2803
13 in favour, none against, 2 abstentions, China and Russia, at the Council's 10046th meeting on 17 November 2025
United Nations Security Council
The Board of Peace mandate and reporting duty
Authorised until 31 December 2027, with a written report to the Security Council every six months, under paragraphs 8 and 10 of resolution 2803
United Nations Security Council
Who the plan says will verify disarmament
Point 13 puts demilitarisation under the supervision of independent monitors the plan never names. Point 16 leaves the standards, milestones and timeframes for withdrawal to be agreed between the Israeli army, the stabilisation force, the guarantors and the United States, and puts the handover of territory into a separate agreement with what the point calls the transitional authority
United Nations Security Council
Killed in Gaza since the ceasefire
1,209
1,209 Palestinians killed and 3,943 injured from 10 October 2025 to 29 July 2026, on the Gaza health ministry's count as reported by the UN's OCHA. The BBC on 31 July 2026 gave at least 1,168 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks, from the same ministry. The BBC counted four Israeli soldiers killed in Palestinian attacks in Gaza over the same period, separately from that figure
OCHA occupied Palestinian territory
The war's death tolls since October 2023
More than 73,290 killed in Gaza during the Israeli campaign that began in October 2023, of them 21,280 children, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable, as reported by the BBC on 31 July 2026; 1,200 killed in Israel and 251 taken hostage in the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023
BBC News
How much of Gaza Israel controls
The news agency AP wrote on 2 August 2026 that the Israeli military controls more than 60 per cent of the territory; The National on 5 August 2026 said only that Israel still occupies most of the enclave, and OCHA's situation report of 31 July 2026 gives no share
AP News
Food security under the ceasefire
Over 1.2 million people, 59 per cent of the population, in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse between mid-April and 30 June 2026, according to the IPC analysis reported by OCHA on 31 July 2026
OCHA occupied Palestinian territory
What the Board of Peace is made of
A body of countries chaired by Trump, taking in Israel and Arab countries but no Palestinian representative; 40 countries gathered at its inauguration in February 2026, according to NPR on 31 July 2026
NPR
The oversight proposed on 17 August 2026
A senior Israeli official said Netanyahu and Jared Kushner agreed demilitarisation should begin with a Hamas weapons handover supervised by an American military general. No general was named, and Netanyahu's office did not confirm the account. It did confirm two working groups, and said disarmament should be completed before any reconstruction
NBC News
The Board of Peace's first reconstruction plan
2.45 billion dollars
2.45 billion dollars for 66 projects in infrastructure, education and health, with a six-month first phase rolling out from Rafah, then Khan Younis, the central camps, Gaza City and northern Gaza. Physical reconstruction was put at 35.2 billion dollars in the medium term and 71.4 billion over the next decade
The National

What the comparison shows

Where they agree

Resolution 2803 was adopted without a single vote against. Its first paragraph endorses the plan, acknowledges that the parties have accepted it, and calls on all parties to implement it in full. Russia, which abstained, told the Council that Ramallah and many Arab and Muslim states had spoken in favour of the resolution to avoid renewed bloodshed in the enclave. The aim the plan sets is not itself in dispute: Hamas is not to govern Gaza, and the weapons are to be put permanently beyond use. What the parties accepted was the plan, not the disarmament agreement that followed in July 2026.

Where they split

The argument is about sequence and verification. Netanyahu says Israel will not withdraw from its current positions until Hamas is completely disarmed. The disarmament agreement runs the other way: AP, describing the copy it obtained and verified, says the agreement ties decommissioning to a phased Israeli withdrawal. A senior Hamas official, speaking to NPR anonymously on 31 July 2026, said Israel must first meet its commitments under the first phase of the ceasefire, including withdrawal. AP reports, citing a person familiar with the deal, that Israel raised two other issues: that Qatar and Turkey not be involved in verifying the stages, and that Hamas's weapons be destroyed after confiscation. The vetted international police force meant to receive the weapons had not been stood up when NPR reported on 31 July 2026.

What nobody is saying

Point 16 lets Israeli forces stay in a security perimeter until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat. It names no body to decide when that is reached. The point also puts the handover of territory into a separate agreement with what it calls the transitional authority, and the twenty points never say which body that is. The resolution sets no completion date for demilitarisation or withdrawal, while the Board of Peace's own authorisation expires on 31 December 2027. Nothing here says whether the vetted police force meant to receive the weapons was ever stood up after 31 July 2026.

Who says what

Donald Trump, President of the United States and chair of the Board of Peace

He announced the agreement on 30 July 2026 as a historic breakthrough for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza, to be carried out in carefully structured phases.

”As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors”As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors
Source: NPR · Friday, 31 July 2026
Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel

Israel did not agree to the disarmament agreement and will not withdraw from its current positions until Hamas is completely disarmed. His spokesperson Doron Spielman told AP on 2 August 2026 that disarming means physically giving up the weapons, nothing less. Netanyahu's own statement came in a Hebrew-language video on his Facebook page on 4 August 2026, rendered in English by The National.

”President Trump thinks, or his team thinks, that they can get Hamas to disarm and demilitarise Gaza. We are looking into it. They sent us a draft. We did not agree to it”President Trump thinks, or his team thinks, that they can get Hamas to disarm and demilitarise Gaza. We are looking into it. They sent us a draft. We did not agree to it
Source: The National · Wednesday, 5 August 2026
Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement, The second largest armed group in Gaza

Trump announced the disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups without naming any of the others. On 31 July 2026 the movement disputed the agreement and called what Trump announced inaccurate.

”We have reservations regarding it in the currently circulated form”We have reservations regarding it in the currently circulated form
Source: NPR · Friday, 31 July 2026
Nickolay Mladenov, High Representative in Gaza for the Board of Peace

He says the agreement took months of very difficult negotiations.

”What the agreement says matters. What happens next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real. Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning”What the agreement says matters. What happens next matters even more. Implementation and verification have to be real. Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning
Source: NPR · Friday, 31 July 2026
Mustafa Barghouti, Leader of the Palestinian National Initiative

The sticking point is sequencing, and the pressure has to fall on Israel.

”He should exercise pressure on Israel to connect to the ceasefire and stop bombarding Gaza, and begin the process of withdrawing from Gaza instead of expanding their occupation”He should exercise pressure on Israel to connect to the ceasefire and stop bombarding Gaza, and begin the process of withdrawing from Gaza instead of expanding their occupation
Source: NPR · Friday, 31 July 2026
Vasilij Nebenzia, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations

Beyond the words quoted, he told the Council that the resolution gives the force a peace-enforcement mandate so extensive that the mission may actually turn into a party to the conflict, and that there is no clarity on the timelines for transferring control over Gaza to the Palestinian Authority.

”the Board of Peace and the International Stabilization Force, which, pursuant to the text of the resolution adopted today by the Council, will be able to act absolutely autonomously, without any regard for Ramallah's position and opinion”the Board of Peace and the International Stabilization Force, which, pursuant to the text of the resolution adopted today by the Council, will be able to act absolutely autonomously, without any regard for Ramallah's position and opinion
Source: United Nations Security Council · Monday, 17 November 2025 · He spoke in Russian. The words quoted are the English translation carried in the Council's provisional verbatim record of the meeting; that record states the final text will be printed in the Official Records.

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