President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace has submitted a written proposal to Hamas laying out a mechanism for the group to disarm as part of a broader plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported, citing two unnamed sources. Hamas has so far rejected the step as Trump pushes ahead with his plan.
The proposal appears to be the clearest attempt yet to turn Trump’s Gaza plan into a concrete framework, linking postwar reconstruction and possible amnesty for Hamas members to the group’s disarmament. But Hamas says it will not give up its weapons unless Israeli forces fully withdraw from the territory.
One of the sources told Reuters the proposal was presented to Hamas during meetings held in Cairo last week. The two sources said the talks were attended by Gaza High Commissioner Nikolay Mladenov and former US special envoy for economic normalization Aryeh Lightstone in an effort to advance Washington’s plan for the territory’s future.
Reuters also quoted US officials as saying the proposal includes the possibility of amnesty for Hamas members if the group agrees to hand over its heavy and light weapons, including rifles.
But two senior Hamas sources had previously told Al Manassa in April that the group rejected any disarmament proposal unless the Israeli army fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip, out of concern it could come under attack from rival armed groups inside the territory, some of them backed by Israel.
According to Reuters, Israel has shown “no sign of withdrawing its troops who are in control of around half of Gaza's territory, with Hamas keeping a firm grip on the other half of the enclave and its two million population, most of which has been rendered homeless by two years of devastating war.”
Trump’s plan, which Israel and Hamas tentatively agreed to last October, provides for Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza and reconstruction to begin in exchange for the group’s disarmament.
In mid-February, the Israeli government announced that it was giving Hamas 60 days to fully disarm, a demand that mediators in Egypt and Qatar refused to pass on to the group, a senior Hamas political bureau official told Al Manassa.
Mladenov said serious efforts were underway to deliver aid to the territory, stressing that an agreed framework was now on the table but required “one clear choice”: full decommissioning by Hamas and every armed group, with no exceptions. In a post on X, he added, “May those responsible make the right choice for the Palestinian people.”
One Reuters source said the amnesty and investment aimed at Gaza were being offered as incentives to Hamas, but added that it was unclear whether the Board of Peace would have the money needed to cover the cost.
In February, Trump said he had funding commitments worth $7 billion from several countries, some of them in the Gulf, before those countries came under attack in the widening US-Israeli war on Iran.
In broader international reaction, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the goal of financing Gaza’s reconstruction but criticized how the plan was being run, saying it was too heavily shaped by Trump’s personal vision.
Speaking to Politico, Guterres stressed the need to abide by international law and the UN Charter in any peace initiative, calling for a multilateral approach to address the crisis amid rising regional tensions.
