Hamas officials were due to hold talks in Cairo on Tuesday with representatives from the international Board of Peace set up by US president Donald Trump. They were expected to discuss details of disarmament, seen as the key step to moving to the next stages of the six-month-old Gaza ceasefire.
The board is eager to implement a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and has given Hamas until the end of this week to accept disarmament proposals.
So far Hamas has been reluctant to lay down its arms and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said it will be disarmed by force if necessary.
Clashes in Gaza on Monday, in which at least 12 people were killed, were the latest reminder that the problem of the war-torn enclave hasn’t gone away, even though the regional focus has naturally shifted to Iran in recent weeks.
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Most of the fatalities on Monday occurred when Hamas fighters engaged with a local, Israeli-backed militia in the Maghazi camp in central Gaza and Israeli drones fired rockets in support of the militia.
Israeli forces still control more than half of the enclave. An agreement on Hamas disarmament will pave the way, in theory at least, for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to withdraw from Gaza, an international stabilisation force to be deployed, and work to begin on the reconstruction project, accompanied by an influx of much-needed humanitarian assistance.
Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, who helped mediate the ceasefire agreement in October 2025, ending two years of war, are exerting pressure on Hamas to disarm. But the militant group accuses Israel of violating the ceasefire and killing more than 700 residents since October, highlighting the limited operation of the Rafah crossing, the small number of aid trucks allowed into the enclave and the repeated IDF strikes deep inside the strip.
Under the Board of Peace plan, Hamas would be required to allow the destruction of its vast Gaza tunnel network as it lays down its arms in stages over eight months.
The plan follows a timeline that begins with a US-backed committee of Palestinian technocrats taking security control of Gaza and concludes with Israeli forces withdrawing completely upon “verification that Gaza is free of weaponry”.
The plan stipulates that reconstruction will only be allowed in areas that are designated as demilitarised, following verification by a designated board committee.
Hamas argues that the board is unfairly prioritising disarmament over other ceasefire issues although it has indicated a willingness in the past to put its heavy weapons “in storage”.
Meanwhile, the IDF is planning for a long-term presence in Gaza and has already set up more than 30 military outposts along the “yellow-line” demarcation border that splits Gaza in two.
