Ministers set to discuss renewing Gaza war as Hamas refuses to disarm — report

Arab diplomats say Hamas willing to discuss disarming only as part of establishing a Palestinian state; IDF says at least 3 terrorists killed in Gaza, one wounded approaching troops

The security cabinet is reportedly scheduled to discuss renewing the war in Gaza on Sunday, as negotiations to disarm Hamas and demilitarize the Strip stall.

“Hamas is not standing by the agreement on disarmament. We are holding discussions with mediators,” an Israeli official told the Kan public broadcaster on Saturday evening.

US President Donald Trump’s ​plan for the Gaza Strip, which was initially embraced by Israel and Hamas, calls for Israeli troops to withdraw from the enclave and reconstruction to ⁠start as Hamas lays down its weapons.

The disarmament of Hamas has been a key sticking point in talks to implement the plan and cement the ceasefire reached in October, which halted two years of full-blown war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel. Violence has continued in Gaza, much of which remains in ruins.

Nickolay Mladenov, leading Trump’s Board of Peace, held talks with Hamas leaders for weeks, and toward the beginning of last month, gave the group until April 11 to accept the Board of Peace’s proposal for it to gradually hand over all of its arms.

The plan, partially leaked to the media, follows an eight-month timeline, beginning with Hamas handing over its heavy weaponry and maps of its tunnel network within 90 days.

But Hamas has largely bucked the demands to give up all of its weapons, two Arab diplomats familiar with the negotiations told The Times of Israel on Saturday.

Instead, the terror group submitted a counter-offer to the Board of Peace, insisting that the issue of its weapons only be addressed as part of a framework culminating in the establishment of a Palestinian state.

While US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war, on which the Board of Peace is operating, speaks generally of eventual Palestinian self-determination, Hamas in its response demanded more definitive guarantees toward that end before discussing the handover of its weapons, the two Arab diplomats said.

Hamas also demanded that Israel cease violating commitments pertaining to the first phase of the ceasefire deal reached in October, taking issue with Israel’s expansion of the eastern half of Gaza that it controls, its strikes on fighters on the western side of the Strip and daily entries of humanitarian aid that have fallen below agreed-upon terms, the Arab diplomats added.

One of the Arab diplomats maintained that it would still be possible for the mediators to coax Hamas to gradually give up its weapons, but said similar pressure will also have to be applied by the US on Israel to uphold its commitments.

The diplomat said such simultaneous pressure on Israel and Hamas is unlikely to come while international attention is largely focused on Iran.

However, the Arab official acknowledged that the status quo in Gaza will be harder to reverse the longer it is allowed to remain in place.

IDF says it killed 3 operatives who approached troops in Gaza

Meanwhile, the IDF said on Saturday it killed at least three terror operatives and wounded a fourth after they approached Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip.

According to the IDF, in several incidents, troops of the Gaza Division stationed in the Strip’s south identified “four terrorists who crossed the Yellow Line and approached the forces in a manner that posed an imminent threat.”

The military said it “struck the terrorists to remove the threat,” adding that three were killed and the fourth “was hit.”

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said that over 72,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian enclave since the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, sparked by the terror group’s bloody invasion and massacre in southern Israel, when 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted to Gaza.

The death toll does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, and includes at least 800 people that the ministry says have been killed since a ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 2025.

The Israeli military believes that Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating two to three civilians killed for every slain terror operative.

The IDF says it has killed over 23,000 combatants in Gaza and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and says Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 477. Five IDF soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire.