Trump Announces Historic Gaza Peace Council Agreement on Hamas Disarmament

Donald Trump announced that the Peace Council has reached a historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

Agreement on Hamas and Regional Security

“The Peace Council has reached a historic agreement on the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in the Gaza Strip. This is a monumental step toward lasting peace and security,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. The Peace Council is an institution led by the US president designed to oversee the peace process in the Gaza Strip.

The leader added that achieving this agreement is an important step toward Gaza being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Peace Council. “At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, and the Gaza Strip will no longer be used as a base for terrorist attacks,” the American president emphasized, stating that this is a key step in implementing the 20-point Trump Plan.

He announced that the agreement will be implemented in stages. “Following disarmament, Israeli forces will withdraw, and international stabilization forces will work with the new Palestinian police, taking responsibility for ensuring that the Gaza Strip is safe for its residents and neighbors,” Trump stated. “A year ago, there was a brutal war, a humanitarian crisis, and hostages were held in brutal captivity. We have achieved historic progress, but there is still much work to be done,” he added.

International Mediators and Context of the Conflict

The American leader also thanked the mediators—Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey—and his team. “The threat that emerged from the Gaza Strip on October 7 will NOT be allowed to rebuild!” Trump stated, referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Earlier on Thursday, the Israeli daily “Haaretz” reported significant progress in negotiations regarding the implementation of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire. This phase provides for, among other things, the disarmament of Hamas, the withdrawal of Israeli troops—who still control about 60 percent of the Gaza territory—and the introduction of international peacekeeping forces.

>/////> 5 thousand cadets in the Gaza Strip are supposed to keep order. Among them Hamas members? – writes Marta Urzędowska on Wyborcza.pl >/////

Dramatic Toll of the War

A ceasefire has been in effect since October 10, 2025, but it has been disrupted by regular Israeli attacks. According to local authorities, 1214 Palestinians have been killed in these attacks since that date. The Israeli side reported that four soldiers have died as a result of Palestinian attacks during this period.

However, this is only the balance of the truce period. Counting from the outbreak of the war in October 2023, the scale of casualties is incomparably larger. In January 2026, an Israeli security official publicly confirmed for the first time that approximately 70,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip since then—bringing the figure close to estimates long provided by the Hamas-controlled Palestinian health ministry, which Israel had previously consistently challenged.

The majority of casualties are civilians. Former Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi stated in September 2025 that about 200,000 of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents had been killed or wounded—meaning roughly every tenth resident.

On the Israeli side, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack cost the lives of about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and 251 people were abducted at the time. Since the start of the Israeli ground campaign in the Gaza Strip, about 400 Israeli soldiers have also been killed.

Controversies Surrounding the Peace Council and Reconstruction Plans

The Peace Council, although presented by the White House as an institution to provide Gaza with “hope and dignity,” has raised serious doubts from the beginning—including among US allies. When Trump formally announced its creation in January 2026 during the Davos forum, the name “Gaza” did not appear in the announcement at all—the body was described as a universal organization intended to operate in any “conflict-affected areas,” with Trump as chairman retaining exclusive rights to create, modify, and dissolve its subordinate bodies. Human rights experts pointed out that such a structure—the oversight of a single leader over the administration of foreign territory—resembles a colonial structure.

Doubts are also raised by the direction of the planned “reconstruction.” At the same Davos summit, Trump called the Gaza Strip area “prime real estate,” and his son-in-law Jared Kushner presented a vision of a new Gaza with skyscrapers along the coast and new cities, announcing a Washington investment conference to attract private capital. Earlier, in September 2025, the “Washington Post” revealed a 38-page document prepared by individuals associated with the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—the concept of the “GREAT Trust” (Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust) fund, assuming the investment of 100 billion dollars from private sources with a fourfold return after a decade and transforming Gaza into a hub for new technologies and tourism.

The plan also assumed the displacement of 2 million Palestinians. The Israeli daily “Haaretz” described it as a get-rich-quick project based on war crimes, artificial intelligence, and tourism, and commentators pointed out that the residents of a Gaza rebuilt in this way would remain mere guests in their own city.

In early July, Hamas announced the dissolution of its civilian administrative structures in the Gaza Strip and the transfer of power to a technocratic Palestinian committee (NCAG), supervised by the Peace Council. This is the implementation of one of the points of the ceasefire agreement.