Hamas official: Weapons storage contingent on Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, dismantling of Israel-backed militias

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad tells Al Jazeera — following US President Donald Trump’s announcement that an agreement had been reached on the second phase of the ceasefire — that the storage of Hamas’s weapons is contingent on a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the dismantling of militias backed by Israel.

Hamad says in the interview: “We will not take a single step unless we are certain that Israel will also carry out its commitments.”

He adds that the weapons would be placed in storage only after the commitments of the first phase of the ceasefire are fulfilled — apparently referring to the entry of humanitarian aid — and after the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza enters the Strip.

An official from Trump’s Board of Peace said the only withdrawal Israel has to make in the first stage is to the original Yellow Line demarcated in Gaza, and that future withdrawals would happen only after each are of Gaza is demilitarized.