Israel Voices Concerns Over US-Proposed Hamas Disarmament Deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has voiced serious concerns over a US-proposed deal for Hamas to relinquish its weapons, while Hamas has said any agreement must first guarantee an end to attacks and complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Israeli officials claim Hamas isn’t genuinely inclined to disarm, but is instead reorganizing its strength, warning that withdrawing troops at this stage could prompt Hamas to launch fresh attacks out of anger. The US administration has pushed back, saying Israel was consulted continuously throughout the deal’s formulation and that nothing is being asked of Israel that it hadn’t previously agreed to.

According to reports, Israel is insisting Hamas’s weapons be completely destroyed rather than simply confiscated, while also seeking continued freedom to conduct military operations inside Gaza at its own discretion — conditions that would preserve significant Israeli operational latitude even under a nominal disarmament agreement.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership reiterated their joint position during a key meeting in Cairo, saying an immediate end to attacks on unarmed Palestinian civilians in Gaza, complete Israeli military withdrawal, and delivery of humanitarian aid form the foundation for any further steps. Hamas said any handover of heavy weapons or related arrangements is only possible once Israeli aggression fully stops and international protection is guaranteed.

These negotiating positions unfold against a backdrop of severe, well-documented ceasefire violations. Independent reporting from multiple outlets, including Al Jazeera and the UN, has tracked a steadily rising Palestinian death toll despite the October 2025 ceasefire — from roughly 738 killed by early April, according to UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk, to over 1,000 by mid-June, and exceeding 1,100 by mid-July, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry figures cited by Al Jazeera. Attacks have continued on a near-daily basis, including strikes on tents housing displaced people, vehicles, and residential buildings, alongside continued Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid entering the territory.

Netanyahu faces significant domestic political pressure alongside this negotiation, having recently traveled to the US to meet President Trump despite an outstanding ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes during the Gaza war — a visit that placed the disarmament dispute directly into the broader context of high-level US-Israel coordination on both Gaza and the separate Iran conflict.

The gap between Israel’s stated conditions — complete weapons destruction and continued unilateral military freedom — and Hamas’s insistence on a full end to attacks and withdrawal before any disarmament proceeds suggests these talks face substantial obstacles beyond simple implementation details. Given the ceasefire’s already poor track record of actual compliance since October, with UN officials describing the situation as affording Palestinians no real safety nine months on, any disarmament framework agreed on paper would face significant questions about enforcement and genuine adherence from both sides based on the deal’s track record so far.