President Trump brushed off questions on Friday about the viability of a new plan to disarm Hamas, insisting that Israel was “very happy” with the deal despite signs of concern from Israel’s government.
“We do have an understanding with Israel,” Mr. Trump told reporters after a cabinet meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat. “Israel is very happy about it. Israel helped us.”
But a day after proclaiming the plan a “historic breakthrough,” Mr. Trump tempered expectations. Calling the situation “very complex,” he warned that the process would probably undergo “ups and downs.”
The plan was officially brokered by the Board of Peace, a multinational body Mr. Trump created in early 2025 to oversee peace efforts between Israel and Hamas and the eventual reconstruction of Gaza. Qatar, Egypt and Turkey played central roles in the effort.
Recently overshadowed by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, the Gaza conflict re-emerged in Washington when Mr. Trump triumphantly announced on Thursday night that Hamas had agreed to “complete disarmament.” Israel has long said it will only withdraw fully from Gaza once the group has given up its weapons.
Any resistance to the plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel could further complicate his relations with Mr. Trump. The two men have had strong differences of late over the wisdom of pursuing diplomacy with Iran and Israel’s war against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon.
Mr. Trump has rejected Mr. Netanyahu’s warnings that Iran responds only to unrelenting military and economic pressure, and has attempted negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Mr. Trump also forced Mr. Netanyahu to sharply limit Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah when that conflict threatened U.S. talks with Iran.
And the latest Hamas disarmament plan is meant to advance an October 2025 cease-fire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian group that Mr. Netanyahu grudgingly accepted under pressure from Mr. Trump.
“This is another instance of Trump imposing his will on Netanyahu,” said Natan Sachs, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.
The Gaza war began after Hamas militants raided Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and killed about 1,200 people. Israel responded with massive force, destroying much of the territory and killing more than 70,000 people, according to Gaza health officials.
Mr. Trump may see progress in Gaza as a chance, after five months of an unpopular war in Iran, to revive a peacemaking image he cultivated during his first year in office, when he repeatedly proclaimed himself worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.
Now, having publicly celebrated a new breakthrough for Gaza, Mr. Trump also has an incentive to make sure Mr. Netanyahu does not undermine him.
That might take some work. Mr. Netanyahu has not issued a formal statement on Mr. Trump’s announcement, but on Friday the Israeli government circulated comments attributed only to a “diplomatic official” insisting on “genuine” disarmament by Hamas.
And Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called the plan “unacceptable” on social media; Mr. Netanyahu has rarely defied his far-right supporters on such matters.
It is also unclear whether Hamas has truly agreed to all Mr. Trump claimed. The group appeared to hedge on Friday, saying that it would only begin surrendering its “heavy weapons” once Israel halted attacks on Gaza. (Hamas also indicated no plans to give up light weapons such as assault rifles, which pose little strategic threat to Israel but allow the group to maintain political control over Gaza, which it is also supposed to surrender.)
The new agreement largely echoes pledges both sides made previously under the October cease-fire. Hamas said it would disarm, and Israel committed to stopping its attacks. But each side then accused the other of breaking their word and neither happened. Both remain insistent that the other take the first steps.
Asked by a reporter on Friday how that sequencing should work, Mr. Trump sidestepped the question. He claimed that the agreement “shows you how much success we’re having with Iran,” without offering any basis for that assertion.
At best, the new plan will get off to a very gradual start. The 15-point agreement released by the Board of Peace says the parties will have two weeks to determine an implementation schedule, which can be extended. The process of decommissioning and storing weapons, as well as the decommissioning of Hamas tunnels under Gaza, will happen “in a gradual, sequential and time-bound manner.”
Given Israel’s clear reservations and signs that Hamas continues to jockey for advantage, Mr. Sachs said that ensuring follow through on the agreement will be difficult for Mr. Trump.
Israel and Hamas place an extremely high priority on the matter, he said, while Mr. Trump has countless other agenda items competing for his easily-diverted attention.
Hamas and Israel “will each use their time and higher focus and attention to detail to try and get their way,” Mr. Sachs said. In particular, he said, the sides are likely to continue arguing over the meaning of disarmament and the fate of Hamas’s light weapons.
Mr. Trump hosted Mr. Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday. It is unclear whether the men discussed the matter there.
The October cease-fire between Israel and Hamas freed the last of the hostages taken on Oct. 7, and returned the remains of those who had died in captivity. Many Palestinian prisoners held by Israel were also released.
Under that cease-fire, Israeli troops withdrew to a “yellow line” about midway through Gaza. But since then Israel has expanded its control to roughly two-thirds of the territory. Mr. Ben-Gvir and others on the Israeli right are pressing Mr. Netanyahu to reclaim control of the entire strip and even allow Jewish settlements there.
The agreement allowed for the shipment of more food and medicine into Gaza, leading to what aid groups called modest improvements in nutrition and health.
But the United Nations World Food Program reported last month that “emergency hunger” still gripped roughly 200,000 Gazans and that conditions “risk tipping back into catastrophe.”
