U.S. President Donald Trump said talks in Cairo between mediators and Hamas leaders on Thursday have led to a phased disarmament agreement in ​Gaza, but a Hamas official described the deal as a draft and U.S. officials said Israel was skeptical the militant Palestinian group would surrender its weapons.

What is Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’?

“Today, the Board of ‌Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” Trump said in a social media post, adding that the disarmament would come in phases. “This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.”

The agreement was a critical step towards Gaza being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the so-called Board of Peace, Trump said. “At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used ​as a base for terror attacks,” he added, Reuers reported.

A Hamas source told Reuters the “draft agreement” stipulates that ​heavy weapons would only be stored and kept under the control of a Palestinian administration, and the weapons cannot be transferred to Israel.

“We will not take ⁠any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip,” Ghazi Hamad, a member of the Hamas negotiating team, told Al Jazeera.

A U.S. official on Thursday told reporters that Israel is “very skeptical that Hamas ​will disarm.”

“We’re very confident they will adhere to it,” the U.S. official added. “If they don’t, obviously President Trump would be very, very disappointed.”

There were also questions about how long the process would take. A Board of Peace official ​gave an estimate of 200 to 320 days, but a U.S. official played down that timeline.

An Israeli official, who declined to be identified, said before Trump’s announcement Israel had rejected a proposal.

“Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarization of the Strip as a precondition for any process,” the official said earlier on Thursday.

“The 15-point document in question does not provide a satisfactory response to these demands and Israel conveyed its objections.”

Earlier, Israeli ​strikes killed at least six Palestinians in Gaza, including two children, medics said.

A ROADMAP TOWARDS HAMAS DISARMAMENT?

Hamas leaders held talks with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey on the second phase of Trump’s Gaza plan, ​as presented to them by his Board of Peace.

Trump set up the board to oversee a plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza and rebuild the devastated territory. He appointed members of the board with himself as chair and said last ‌year that the ⁠board will supervise Gaza’s temporary governance.

“Ahead of us is a Gaza rebuilt, governed by Palestinians and at peace with Israel an a political horizon to a meaningful resolution the Israeli Palestinian conflict,” Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, said in a statement after the president’s post.

Officials involved in the talks shared few details about plans to rebuild Gaza.

The plan also calls for a surge in humanitarian aid, governance by a civilian Palestinian administration, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the deployment of an international force to help maintain security.

HANDOVER OF WEAPONS COULD BE STICKING POINT

The reality on the ground in Gaza, so far, ​remains far from the goals of the agreement.

Hamas wants ​Israel to commit to ending attacks on ⁠Gaza and withdraw its forces.

It is not yet clear what will happen regarding light or personal weapons or whether the new Hamas stance will be accepted by Israel or the Board of Peace.

The plan includes the elimination of tunnels, arms stockpiles and weapons production facilities, a diplomat involved in the talks said, adding that ​by the end of the process there would be no remaining militant infrastructure in Gaza.

“This isn’t really a trust deal,” a U.S. official said on ​Thursday, calling the agreement a “conditions-based ⁠deal.”

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.

It remains unclear how many forces would be available to deploy with the planned International Stabilization Force, and whether Israeli troops would withdraw from the enclave.

ATTACKS CONTINUE

Health officials said separate Israeli strikes had killed at least two children, a woman and three men in Gaza ⁠on Thursday. The ​Israeli military said it struck Hamas militants in the enclave.

The ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly violated, with more than 1,200 Palestinians, ​mostly civilians, being killed by Israeli attacks and four Israeli soldiers being killed by militants since the truce began in October, according to Gaza health officials and Israeli authorities, respectively.

Hamas does not usually disclose its losses.

Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, a Gulf source and a Western ​diplomat told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Omani proposals are intended to serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

But a U.S. official on Tuesday ‌again rejected the idea of tolls or fees for ships transiting the strait, reiterating that it is an international waterway that should be free of Iranian control or restrictions. The official told Reuters that the deal under discussion would not include any tolls or fees.

President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn, said there were “good talks” under way with Iran but threatened to restart strikes unless negotiations deliver. Iran has denied seeking to resume talks with the United States.

Iran has said it would hold fire as ​long as Washington does. But U.S. Central Command said on Tuesday that Iran had launched multiple ballistic missiles “in an attempted surprise attack on U.S. forces based in the Middle East,” and that the missles were successfully intercepted

Saudi Arabia said ​on Tuesday that its air defences intercepted and destroyed several drones targeting oil facilities. The attacks were launched from Iraqi territory by Iran-backed terrorist militias, Saudi Defence Ministry spokesperson Turki ⁠al-Maliki said.

Drone attacks were reported in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and northern Iran on Monday, and Jordan reported another drone being downed on Tuesday.

Washington launched fresh strikes earlier this month to break Iran’s grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of ​global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.

Iran effectively shut the strait to ships other than its own after the United States and Israel attacked on February 28. A deal last month between the United States and Iran partially reopened it, ​with future talks planned to resolve larger issues including Iran’s nuclear program.

But the agreement collapsed in early July after Iran fired on ships using a channel it does not approve.

Iran has said it wants to manage the strait alongside Oman, which controls the opposite shore, and charge service fees to ships that use it. Washington wants to return to the status quo prior to the war, when ships were able to pass freely with no payments, and says charging mandatory fees would be illegal.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Tehran had proposed ​to Oman that Iran manage one-way shipping through its side of the strait and Muscat manage part but not all of the opposite direction.

Under the Omani proposal, Iran would not exercise sole control and fees would be voluntary, the Gulf source and ​a Western diplomat briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.

The Western diplomat compared it to ‌a voluntary carbon ⁠tax for flights, where anyone buying a plane ticket can choose to tick a box if they want to pay to offset their emissions.

Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers met via video call on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the conflict, including ways to intensify cooperation on issues related to freedom and safety of vessels through the waterway, a statement from the Qatari Foreign Ministry said.

Iran’s joint military command again rejected a plan put forward by Trump for damages to vessels to be paid from frozen Iranian assets, state media reported. It said that any country or company that accepted such payments would be denied passage through the Strait of Hormuz by Iran’s armed forces.

Adding to the challenges for shipping in the region, the Iran-aligned Houthis in ​Yemen opened a new front against the U.S. and its ​allies on July 20, when they declared a blockade ⁠of Saudi ports on the Red Sea.

Late on Tuesday, the Houthis said they had fired ballistic missiles at a Saudi oil tanker, which they said was forced to turn back.

Trump called off more airstrikes after receiving advice from military commanders that the strategy had run its course. The 13 nights of renewed U.S. bombing killed scores in Iran and ​destroyed bridges and tunnels across the south as well as military targets.

Iran responded with attacks on U.S. bases in neighbouring countries that killed four service members as well as strikes ​on civil infrastructure in Gulf states ⁠that it said were in response to U.S. strikes on civilian targets.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Trump said the U.S. was in a strong position right now. He reiterated he was prepared to strike more Iranian targets but said he would prefer to avoid doing so.

Trump also repeated a threat to potentially target Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran’s main nuclear sites, saying: “If we don’t make a deal, ⁠we’ll take it ​out very easily”.

Iran says it has not sought any new negotiations with the United States, which it accuses of violating the agreement reached last month ​on a framework for talks to end the war.

Trump met Netanyahu amid strained relations between the two leaders. Israel was involved in the initial bombing campaign but has not been part of subsequent peace talks.

The end of the U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend sent oil prices tumbling by around 8% on ​Monday, and the fall continued on Tuesday. Brent crude futures were down 5.1% at less than $84 a barrel.

Syria ‌is seeking to reach a security agreement with Israel, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Sunday.

He said a deal could pave the way for comprehensive peace between the two countries without compromising Syria’s right ​to the Golan Heights, an area that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and ​annexed in 1981.

“We are avoiding getting into confrontations,” ​he added.

Soon after former Syrian President Bashar Al Assad fell to rebel forces advancing under Sharaa’s leadership in ​December 2024, Israeli troops pushed into Syria and seized strategic territories. Israeli troops moved into a demilitarized zone inside Syria, including the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, which overlooks the capital Damascus.

Since then, the Israeli military has launched strikes on ​Syria and detained individuals from within the country. Israel has also intervened in what it calls missions to protect ​ethnic minority Druze in southwestern Syria.

On Sunday, Israeli forces shelled areas in Syria and destroyed an electrical transformer in the ‌village ⁠of Maariyah, depriving homes of power, Syria’s state news agency SANA said.

Sharaa’s comments coincided with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visiting Syria, the first trip by a United Nations chief to the country since 2009.

In a statement on X on Sunday, Guterres called for respect for Syria’s sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity.

“Violations by ​Israel of the 1974 Disengagement ​of Forces Agreement are ⁠unacceptable & must stop,” Guterres said.

Last year, Sharaa, who is trying to rehabilitate Syria’s image, became the first Syrian president since 1967 to take part in the ​U.N. General Assembly in New York. His government is seeking to rebuild ​international ties and ⁠the local economy after nearly 14 years of war and decades of isolation and death under Assad family rule.

Sharaa also said his government is “not considering military interventions” in Lebanon. The Iran-backed Shiite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and ⁠Sharaa ​fought on opposing sides of the Syrian civil war.

Earlier this year, ​U.S. President Donald Trump said he had spoken to Sharaa about combating Hezbollah, after criticizing Israel for killing too many civilians ​in Lebanon.