Hamas says it’s ‘committed’ to 15-point Gaza deal while Board of Peace weighs new plan

Hamas said on Tuesday that it remained committed to the US-backed Gaza disarmament deal, a day after a source told The Times of Israel that the Board of Peace is considering abandoning its original framework, which would have seen the terror group disarming in phases, in favor of an all-at-once process supported by Israel.

The terror group agreed to the Board of Peace plan last month and has pushed to move forward with it, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected it, saying Israel will not conduct any withdrawals until Hamas has been completely disarmed.

Amid the disagreements, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner traveled to the region for a rare direct meeting with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on Sunday, which was followed by a meeting with Netanyahu the next day. According to a source directly familiar with the negotiations, the Board of Peace is now weighing a change in approach to get Israel on side, which would require Hamas to hand over its weapons in full before any Israeli withdrawal — though it now risks losing support of Hamas.

“Hamas is committed to this agreed-upon process,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP on Tuesday, referring to Trump’s original 15-point plan that the terror group agreed to last month.

“It is clear that, so far, the Israeli side has not given the mediators clear approval of the roadmap,” he said.

“There are timelines and procedural steps that need to be worked out in detail, but there must first be Israeli approval of the roadmap,” the spokesman added.

Under the 15-point plan, Hamas would be required to gradually hand over its weapons in different sectors of Gaza, as Israel conducts corresponding withdrawals from the Strip once the weapon handovers and tunnel destructions for a particular sector are verified by the Board of Peace.

But after Kushner’s meeting with Netanyahu on Monday, which also included Board of Peace officials Nickolay Mladenov and Tony Blair, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the parties had agreed that “there would be no redeployment or reconstruction until Hamas is disarmed throughout Gaza,” directly contradicting the 15-point plan.

According to reports, Netanyahu told Kushner and the Board of Peace officials that the framework was politically “problematic” ahead of Israel’s October 27 Knesset election, insisting instead that Hamas take steps first.

Kushner, for his part, remained optimistic after his meetings with leaders from Hamas and Israel, saying in an interview later Monday that progress in getting Hamas to give up its weapons could materialize in about a month.

“We could be seeing progress… in as little as 30 days, hopefully in starting to take some of the weapons out,” Kushner told Fox News while in Israel, adding that the Israeli side voiced some “valid concerns” during the Jerusalem meeting.

Kushner also said that the US is “not going to restrict Israel’s right to defend itself if there are any imminent threats” in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced Tuesday that a strike in the southern Gaza Strip earlier this week killed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist who invaded Israel during the October 7, 2023, onslaught and abducted an Israeli hostage.

The strike in Khan Younis on Sunday killed Tareq Anwar Khamis Ra’i, identified by the army as a company commander in Islamic Jihad’s supply unit.

On October 7, Ra’i invaded Kibbutz Be’eri “and took part in the abduction of an Israeli civilian,” the IDF said, without detailing who the hostage was.

????ELIMINATED: Tareq Anwar Khamis Ra’i, an Islamic Jihad company commander, who infiltrated Kibbutz Be’eri during the October 7 Massacre and took part in the abduction of an Israeli civilian.

He recently advanced terror attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians. pic.twitter.com/E0NsGseWBk

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 18, 2026

The military justified the strike amid the ceasefire by saying that Ra’i had recently been advancing attacks on troops and civilians.

He was “eliminated to remove a threat,” the IDF added, though the army has acknowledged that it is engaged in a campaign to kill all those who took part in the October 7 attacks.

Also on Tuesday, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned that just three percent of the cropland in Gaza remains accessible and undamaged, citing an analysis of satellite images.

The report found that since October 2025, when a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold, the area of accessible and undamaged cropland had fallen to 448 hectares from 601 hectares, a reduction of 25.5%.

Another 3,643 hectares of cropland are accessible but too damaged to be farmed without rehabilitation, the FAO said.

“Without urgent action to restore safe access and provide farmers with the support they need, opportunities to restore local food production will continue to diminish,” said Rein Paulsen, director of the agency’s Office of Emergencies and Resilience.

Restrictions on the import of agricultural goods are also hampering recovery, with livestock farmers struggling to obtain animal feed and veterinary supplies.

Greenhouse availability has also declined, dropping 17.3% since October 2025 to 224 hectares that are accessible and undamaged.

The FAO said the reduced access could be explained mainly by the westward expansion of the so-called Yellow Line that separates the ceasefire zone from the area controlled by the Israeli military.

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