Gaza City, August 8, 2026: Hamas has said it remains ready to proceed with the latest phase of a US-backed Gaza peace plan, calling on Washington to pressure Israel to implement the agreement and allow the process to move forward.
A Hamas official told AFP on Saturday that the group and other Palestinian factions had informed mediators of their readiness to begin implementing the agreement and enter its second phase, provided Israel approves the plan and starts fulfilling its commitments.
“Hamas is urging the US administration to exert pressure on Israel to compel it to abide by the agreement and move to the second phase,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Under the proposed next phase, Hamas would hand over its weapons to an emerging Palestinian governing committee in the Gaza Strip. The plan, backed by US President Donald Trump’s administration, envisages a phased Israeli withdrawal from large parts of the war-ravaged territory alongside the disarmament process.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the suggestion that Israel has accepted the latest draft in its current form. He said on Tuesday that Israel had not agreed to the “draft” presented by the US-backed Board of Peace.
Trump had described Hamas’s reported willingness to disarm as a major breakthrough, while the Board of Peace indicated that Israel would carry out a phased withdrawal from Gaza in parallel with the implementation of the plan.
The process has since faced disagreements over the sequencing of disarmament and Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu held talks on Monday with the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, who subsequently indicated that Israel would withdraw only after Hamas had been fully disarmed.
The Israeli military has meanwhile maintained that it will continue operations against Hamas, which Israel holds responsible for the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the Gaza war.
Israeli military operations in Gaza have nevertheless appeared to decline in intensity in recent days, although incidents have continued. The Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis reported on Saturday that three people had been wounded by Israeli army gunfire.
According to figures cited by AFP from Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under the Hamas-run administration, Israeli military operations have killed 1,257 Palestinians since the ceasefire agreed by the two sides in October last year. The United Nations has previously regarded the ministry’s casualty figures as broadly reliable, although individual figures are not independently verified.
The Israeli military has reported five fatalities among its personnel during the same period.
The latest developments underscore continuing disagreements between Israel and Hamas over the implementation and sequencing of the proposed Gaza peace framework, with Hamas calling for the United States to use its influence to ensure that both sides adhere to the agreement.
