Israel must meet its commitments under peace deal, Hamas official says

Appears to downplay disarmament 'milestone' touted by Trump

Implementation of the deal to bring peace to Gaza announced by U.S. President Donald Trump will depend on Israel first meeting its commitments under an agreement reached last year, a senior Hamas official told Reuters on Friday.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, Trump announced a "major milestone" toward ending the war in Gaza, saying his Board of Peace had reached an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups.

Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official involved in the negotiations, said the agreement was a "comprehensive framework" that went beyond the issue of disarmament and would depend on Israel implementing the first phase of an agreement hammered out last year in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Under that agreement, he said Israel was obliged to end its attacks in Gaza and withdraw its forces to where they stood in October, as well as increase the flow of goods and aid coming into the enclave.

Only then would Hamas agree to hand over its weapons to the new National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the technocratic body set up to run the enclave.

"We insisted to the mediators that Israel must abide by the agreement," he said.

Hours after Trump announced the Hamas deal on Thursday, several Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, medics said.

An Israeli official said on Thursday that Israel would not agree to withdraw behind the so-called Yellow Line before Hamas is disarmed and the Gaza Strip is demilitarized.