Board of Peace said nearing deal with Hamas on disarmament, but Israel opposes offer

A breakthrough was made this week in disarmament talks between Hamas and the US-controlled Board of Peace, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Thursday.

An announcement on Hamas’s agreement to a 15-point Board of Peace proposal that would see the gradual handover of the terror group’s weapons could come in the coming days, an Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations said.

But as reports amassed about an imminent deal, an Israeli official appeared to pour cold water on the optimism, saying that the 15-point proposal “does not adequately address” Jerusalem’s demands for the “complete demilitarization, [which is] a precondition for any process.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government raised these objections recently to Board of Peace envoy Tony Blair, the Israeli official said in a statement, without specifying its issues with the disarmament proposal.

“There will be no IDF withdrawal from the Yellow Line in the Gaza Strip before Hamas is disarmed and the Strip is fully demilitarized,” the Israeli official added.

The proposal being discussed would see Hamas — over an eight-month period — gradually hand over its weapons to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the Board of Peace-overseen panel of Palestinian technocrats that is tasked with replacing the terror group in governing the Strip, the Arab diplomat said.

The International Stabilization Force and Palestinian police will be tasked with assisting in the process, though there is no timeline for either to begin deploying in Gaza.

Israeli-armed anti-Hamas militia groups in Gaza would also be forced to give up their weapons, while a buy-back program will allow Palestinians to receive funds if they hand over their personal weapons. Hamas members who comply with the proposal will be granted amnesty, the Arab diplomat said.

The NCAG will gradually take over areas that have been demilitarized, with a pilot housing project being planned for the Rafah area, a Board of Peace source said.

The Arab diplomat said Hamas is inclined to accept the Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal, recognizing that doing so would “put the ball in Israel’s court,” the Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

Mideast mediators Qatar, Egypt and Turkey — themselves under pressure from the US to deliver — have been leaning on Hamas to get on board, arguing that the terror group can avoid being deemed as the obstacle to a deal.

In making the case to Hamas, the Mideast mediators argued that Netanyahu’s government is unlikely to accept the Board of Peace proposal anyway ahead of the October elections, given that it would require a pull-back of troops from Gaza, the diplomat said.

The deal envisions the IDF immediately returning to the original Yellow Line that roughly divided Gaza into eastern and western halves. Earlier this year, Netanyahu directed the army to take over 70 percent of the Strip, in violation of the October ceasefire, which left Israel in control of 53% of the enclave. The Israeli operations have squeezed Gaza’s population of 2 million to an even smaller area of the Strip closer to the coast, where the majority are still living in tent encampments where IDF strikes continue to take place on a near-daily basis.

Channel 12 reported that Israel would be barred from conducting strikes that aren’t against what are deemed as imminent threats, though that is assuming Jerusalem gets on board with the Board of Peace proposal.

Separately on Thursday, a diplomatic source familiar with the Board of Peace negotiations sent a statement to reporters, stating that the proposal at hand envisions all weapons in Gaza — both heavy and light — will be gradually decommissioned, under the principle of “one authority, one law, one weapon” — that of the NCAG.

The Board of Peace proposal “creates a process for the elimination of all tunnels, depots of weapons, and any weapons production facilities. This is a comprehensive process,” the diplomatic source said. “At the conclusion of the implementation process, there will be no more terror infrastructure in Gaza.”

“This entire process is built on reciprocity, not trust. Each side’s fulfillment of a commitment sequences the next commitment of the other side. A verification mechanism ensures compliance,” the source continued.

Direct contacts between Jared Kushner and the Palestinian Authority’s exiled former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan helped secure a breakthrough in Hamas’s disarmament talks with the Washington-controlled Board of Peace, an aide to Dahlan revealed on Wednesday.

“Dahlan… intervened in these negotiations… through direct contacts with the American side, specifically with Mr. Jared Kushner, with [Board of Peace Gaza envoy] Mr. [Nickolay] Mladenov and with the entire American team,” said Samir Masharawi, who is a senior member of a Dahlan-led breakaway faction from PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, in an interview with the Jordanian Al-Ghad news outlet.

This was the first time that Dahlan had been publicly linked to the Hamas disarmament talks after an extended period in which he worked behind the scenes. Kushner, Trump’s top aide and son-in-law, played a key role in reaching the ceasefire in Gaza last October.

The Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel that Kushner has been consulting with Dahlan since the start of the Trump aide’s involvement in the Gaza file last year.

Dahlan — who lives in Abu Dhabi, where he also serves as a close adviser to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed — also met earlier this year with Shin Bet chief David Zini, a source familiar with the matter confirmed.

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.

As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.

— Stav Levaton, military reporter

We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.

That’s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.

So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.

For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.

Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel