Hamas is progressing towards a deal involving the decommissioning of its weapons, sources familiar with the ongoing talks with mediators in Cairo told AFP Thursday.
A Hamas source added, however, that they were still in the process of making amendments to the proposal.
The thorny issue of Hamas’s disarmament has been one of the key sticking points in the advancement of the ceasefire deal that has been in place between Israel and the group in Gaza since October.
Under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, the second phase of the ceasefire was to involve Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.
The plan also provides for a group of Palestinian technocrats, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), to assume day-to-day governance during Gaza’s transitional phase out of war.
“We continue to advance the implementation roadmap that offers a balanced and pragmatic path forward, with all weapons decommissioned and a phased transition of responsibilities taking place to hand over full authority to the technocratic government,” a diplomatic source told AFP.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said there would be “no exceptions for certain weapons or certain people. One authority, one law, one weapon”.
The roadmap would create “a process for the elimination of all tunnels, depots of weapons and any weapons production facilities”, the source said.
“All weapons, heavy and light, will be under full control of the NCAG in co-ordination with and with the support of the ISF,” the source added, referring to the International Stabilisation Force, a fledgling body envisaged to comprise multinational troops operating under Trump’s Board of Peace.
The source said a verification mechanism would ensure compliance by each side.
A Hamas source familiar with the talks told AFP that the movement is “awaiting the Israeli response to the amendments we recently submitted to the mediators”.
The source said the amendments concerned two articles in the roadmap presented by the Board of Peace.
Regarding the article concerning weapons, the Hamas source said that “some points were removed, and alternatives were proposed”.
The source said that the group was coming with a “positive and good” response, but did not say whether the group had agreed to fully disarm – a key sticking point in the talks over the past four months.
The Palestinian movement wants Israel to commit to ending attacks on Gaza and withdrawing its forces.
Sources close to Hamas said that the group was willing to “confine and store” heavy weapons under a Palestinian body, not hand them over to Israel.
Hamas did not officially comment on the matter.
“There is broad understanding on the definition of heavy weapons, and a formula has been developed that emphasises the concept of restricting and storing heavy weapons, disbanding armed groups and a simultaneous Israeli withdrawal,” the Hamas source added.
Despite the ceasefire, violence has continued in Gaza, with Israeli strikes killing at least four people including two children on Thursday, according to health officials.
The latest deaths add to a toll of more than 1,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, killed by Israeli attacks since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza health officials.
Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire.
The Israeli military has continued to expand its military occupation of Gaza, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel intends to expand the area under its control to 70% of the enclave.
So far, the NCAG has been based in Cairo without announcing a timeline for its entry into the Strip.
It remains unclear how many forces would be available to deploy with the planned ISF, and whether Israeli troops would withdraw from the enclave.
