Middle East crisis live: Trump claims breakthrough reached in Gaza disarmament; Israel and Hamas yet to comment

Senior Hamas officials are saying the agreement reached with Israel includes provisions addressing the group’s weapons and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, Agence France-Presse is reporting.

The news agency quoted a Hamas official as saying that “an agreement has been reached regarding the issue of weapons … Furthermore, an agreement has been reached on a gradual withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The official also said the Islamist movement now expected the mediators and the Board of Peace to ensure that Israel complied with the terms of the deal.

We are yet to get official word from Israel in response to Donald Trump’s disarmament deal announcement.

A US official is reportedly saying that if Israel does not agree to the plan, Donald Trump will be disappointed.

But the official was very confident Israel would adhere to the plan’s terms, Reuters is reporting.

The deal was not asking Israel to agree to anything not included in an earlier plan, the unnamed official said.

A US official was also quoted as claiming Iran tried to convince Hamas not to agree to the disarmament deal but that the US was able to overcome that.

Senior Hamas officials have reportedly confirmed they have reached an agreement to end the conflict with Israel, following Donald Trump’s announcement the group was prepared to disarm.

AFP quoted two officials from the Palestinian Islamist movement, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying it had come to the agreement.

The first weapons to be transferred under the deal will be from police, followed by the decommissioning of heavy weapons, a Board of Peace official is reportedly saying.

All military activity in Gaza would need to stop under the implementation of the plan, Reuters is also quoting the official as saying.

As mentioned, we are yet to hear an official response from Israel to Trump’s announcement.

There has been no immediate statement from Hamas on the Trump’s agreement announcement – but it came after sources familiar with the ongoing talks with mediators in Cairo told Agence France-Presse that the militant Palestinian group was progressing towards a deal involving the decommissioning of its weapons.

The Israeli embassy in Washington and Hamas did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Trump’s post, Reuters is reporting.

Donald Trump has claimed his Board of Peace has reached an “historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza”.

The US president just posted on his Truth Social platform:

This agreement is a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government that will work closely with the Board of Peace to help the Palestinian people. At the same time, Israel will have the security it deserves, with Gaza no longer used as a base for terror attacks.

Trump, who chairs the international group of more than 20 countries, said the agreement “will be carried out in carefully structured phases”.

As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbors.

Trump also asserted in his post:

The threat that emerged from Gaza on October 7 will NOT be allowed to rebuild!

Under this agreement, Gaza will finally be in the hands of a new Palestinian government that serves its PEOPLE.

Hamas and Israel have not yet responded to Trump’s announcement, which he called a “major milestone” in the implementation of his 20-point peace plan for ending the war in Gaza.

Trump thanked mediators Egypt, Qatar and Turkey as well as his own team for their efforts towards the agreement.

The US president announced the Board of Peace earlier this year to oversee Gaza’s reconstruction and governance after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in October 2025.

Donald Trump is claiming his Board of Peace has reached an “historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza”.

More on this in a moment.

Oil prices have settled lower after a volatile session as traders digested proposed plans for a Saudi-led maritime coalition to boost defence cooperation around the Red Sea.

Brent futures settled down $1.71, or 1.88%, at $89.03 ⁠a barrel on Thursday. Trade was choppy and Brent touched a session high of $93.31 after the US and Iran traded strikes on each other’s military targets again, Reuters reports.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled down 87c, or 1.03%, at $83.59, after hitting a high of $85.94.

Tehran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen last week declared a naval ⁠blockade on Saudi Arabia, threatening the Red Sea route for its oil exports, an alternative to the largely blockaded strait of Hormuz.

A partner at Again Capital, John Kilduff, said:

There is this sense that there is a lot ​of supply waiting to hit market once all of this is resolved, and that ‌is a weight against any kind of dramatic ‌price rise.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has shared this statement on X:

The United States soils its hands with a new crime every day; the terrorist attack on the residential homes of civilians on Qeshm Island is a continuation of the atrocities in Minab and Lamerd. Americans have grown accustomed to making up for the slaps they receive on the battlefield by spilling the blood of the innocent. They will pay the price.

At least 175 people – most of them children – were killed on the first day of the war when a Tomahawk missile hit a girls’ elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab.

A preliminary US military investigation found that American forces were responsible. But while reports suggest that a secretive probe into the attack has concluded, some critics fear the Pentagon will bury the results under classifications to keep the worst mistakes secret from the public.

That same day, a strike hit a sports hall in Lamerd, also in southern Iran, killing at least 24 people, including teenage girls playing volleyball. The US was reportedly responsible for that too.

Egypt’s government said on Thursday that authorities were analysing drone fragments from an unprecedented strike on one of its Mediterranean ports, after president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned of regional escalation, AFP reports.

His government had earlier confirmed that a fire the day before on two gas vessels in the Damietta port – one of which was US-owned – was a result of a drone strike, the first to target the country since the outbreak of the war.

Officials have struck a cautious tone in the aftermath, warning against both regional “escalation” and “speculation”.

In his first statement addressing the strike on Wednesday, al-Sisi warned of the “danger of regional escalation”, in a call with Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez.

Authorities were carrying out an ongoing investigation into the strike, after “technical teams boarded the ship and examined the remains of the drone, which security agencies are currently analysing and studying to establish with certainty its origin”, prime minister Mostafa Madbouly said.

The drone strike, similar to others that have hit Egypt’s Gulf and Arab allies throughout the US-Israeli war against Iran, has not been claimed by any warring party.

Iraq’s prime minister will postpone a trip to Saudi Arabia in light of US-Saudi attacks that killed at least 20 members of the country’s Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces, Al Jazeera reports, citing a government spokesperson via the Iraqi News Agency.

Haider al-Aboudi said Baghdad “has not granted any approval for attacks on specific sites or groups within Iraqi territory”.

“The government had no prior knowledge of the attacks on Iraqi territory,” he added.

It comes after Donald Trump claimed the strikes were coordinated with the Iraqi government, despite Baghdad’s condemnation on Wednesday.

Iraq has also said it wanted evidence regarding the launch of alleged attacks on Saudi Arabia from Iran-backed groups in its territory, a demand for which al-Aboudi said Baghdad had contacted Riyadh.

The Saudi defense ministry said this week that drone strikes launched from Iraq had targeted its critical infrastructure and Riyadh on Monday and Tuesday.

“No party has provided any evidence to substantiate these claims so far,” the Iraqi prime minister’s spokesperson Sabah al-Numan told the Iraqi news agency, in comments reported by CNN.

“The government will not tolerate any unilateral actions originating from within Iraq, while at the same time it will not accept any violation coming from outside its borders,” al-Numan added.

As we reported earlier, earlier on Thursday Iran’s IRGC said it struck the US-run Azraq base in Jordan in response to the latest US strikes that were carried out overnight.

“With the help of God, the aggressor will be punished today,” the IRGC said earlier ‌in a statement carried by state media.

Three IRGC members were killed in the northwestern Zanjan province, while a toddler and their parents were killed on the island of Qeshm, in the strait of Hormuz, state media reported.

And Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said that Egypt’s security “of utmost importance” to Tehran.

He wrote on X:

Egypt is an important friend and partner in the region, and its security is of utmost importance to us. We must all be vigilant against Israeli plots and false-flag operations designed to undermine regional peace. The threat is clear, mutual, and fearful of Muslim solidarity.

It comes a day after a drone attack saw a fire break out on two natural gas vessels at the Egyptian port of Damietta. It was the first time Egypt has been attacked since the Iran war started in late February and signalled a potential widening of the conflict.

In his post, Araghchi appeared to suggest the attack was an Israeli false-flag operation.

Egypt’s prime minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Thursday that Egypt has secured alternatives to cover its energy needs after the attack.

No group has claimed responsibility, and authorities are continuing their investigation, he added.