Hamas not expected to okay disarmament offer by Saturday deadline, but talks ongoing

Sources involved in the negotiations insist progress being made and response from terror group could come in days, even if it’s shortly after deadline set by Board of Peace

The Board of Peace does not expect to receive a final approval from Hamas to its disarmament proposal by the Saturday deadline set by the international body overseeing the postwar management of Gaza, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

While the deadline is unlikely to be met, intensive talks with the terror group are ongoing in Cairo with the participation of the Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza Nickolay Mladenov as well as representatives from mediating countries Turkey, Qatar, Egypt and the United States, two of the sources said.

One of the sources stressed that progress is still being made in advancing key elements of US President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the war and expressed hope that Hamas will give its final approval to the Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal in the coming days, even if it may come shortly after the Saturday deadline.

Late weekend, Mladenov met with a delegation of senior Hamas officials in Cairo, and the terror group was subsequently informed that the Gaza oversight board wants a disarmament agreement finalized by the end of this week, two Arab diplomats and a third source told The Times of Israel on Monday.

The Arab diplomats clarified then that minor amendments to the disarmament proposal would still be considered, while requests for fundamental changes by Hamas would not be accepted.

Mladenov is convinced that it is possible to move ahead with the second phase of Trump’s plan for ending the Gaza war, one of the Arab diplomats said, while acknowledging that Middle East mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are not as optimistic.

The mediators are leaning hard on Hamas to accept the US-backed disarmament proposal, but the terror group is “unlikely to say ‘yes’ without significant caveats,” said the Arab diplomat, who is from one of the mediating countries.

“And even if they do, it’s unlikely that Israel will comply,” the diplomat added, arguing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not authorize an additional pullback from Gaza during an election year, as his coalition partners continue to support a permanent Israeli presence in the Strip.

At a Friday, April 3 meeting in Cairo, Hamas officials refrained from outright rejecting the disarmament proposal, which Mladenov first presented to them last month, the Arab diplomat said.

Instead, they highlighted what they said has been Israel’s failure to adhere to the first phase of Trump’s plan, pointing to the limited operation of the Rafah Crossing, the low number of aid trucks that have gone into Gaza, the repeated IDF strikes deep inside Gaza, and Jerusalem’s pushing of the Yellow Line ceasefire demarcator deeper into the Strip, thereby expanding the eastern portion of the territory controlled by Israel.

Mladenov subsequently raised some of these issues with Israeli officials, the Arab diplomat said, noting that the aid truck numbers have begun climbing back up, while other alleged violations have remained unresolved.

The Saturday deadline conveyed to Hamas came after the group dragged its feet in responding to the proposal it first received nearly a month ago.

That offer envisions the destruction of the group’s Gaza tunnel network along with the phased handover of its weapons.

The plan partially leaked to the media follows an eight-month timeline that would begin with a Board of Peace-backed committee of Palestinian technocrats taking security control of Gaza and conclude with Israeli forces withdrawing completely upon “verification that Gaza is free of weaponry.”

Gaza’s entire reconstruction hinges on Hamas agreeing to disarm, with Mladenov indicating in a cryptic tweet last week that there would be consequences for the group if it didn’t get on board.

“He who will not cross the river will drown in the sea,” he wrote.