Trump announces deal to disarm Hamas

US President Donald Trump said on Friday a deal he announced to bring peace to Gaza was "a great breakthrough" despite signs from both Hamas and Israel that significant hurdles remained before a deal can be implemented. The comment came a day after what Trump called a "major milestone" towards ending the war in Gaza that he said would see the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups. "It's a big step for the Middle East, and people are really impressed by it, and they're surprised by it," he said.

Trump's announcement on Thursday of the agreement by his Gaza "Board of Peace" followed months of faltering efforts to keep the ceasefire agreement reached last year in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on track and it was not immediately clear how strongly either Hamas or Israel stood behind it. Previous attempts to reach an accord have foundered amid mutual suspicion and each side's insistence that the other must move first. A senior Hamas official involved in the negotiation told Reuters that implementation of the deal would depend on Israel first meeting its commitments under an agreement reached last year that bound it to a phased end to military operations and withdrawal of its forces from Gaza.

An Israeli official said Israel's position remained that "there will be no withdrawal whatsoever of the IDF from the current Yellow Line unless Hamas undergoes a genuine disarmament", referring to a military demarcation line agreed in the ceasefire. Trump, who met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday, said Israel was "very happy" about the deal. "Israel helped us, and they've been very good," he said.

"Will it go through its ups and downs? It's a very complex situation over there." An Israeli political source said on Thursday the issue of Gaza did not come up during Netanyahu's meeting with Trump. On Friday, Hamas issued a statement saying the first step towards an agreement would have to be a commitment by Israel "to stopping the killing and ending its attacks".

But within hours of Trump unveiling the deal, Gazan medical authorities said one Palestinian was killed and several others had been wounded in at least two Israeli airstrikes and by gunfire in the enclave. The Israeli military said it was reviewing one incident in which a strike intended to hit a member of Hamas' armed wing was diverted after uninvolved individu…