A Palestinian man pulls an empty cart past a sprawling makeshift camp.
Hamas said on Aug. 8 it remained ready to proceed with a U.S.-backed Gaza peace plan and urged pressure on Israel, which insists it did not agree to the latest part of the deal.
Hamas informed U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace that it stood by the latest stage of the plan, under which the militants would hand over weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee in the war-battered territory.
“Hamas and other factions have confirmed to mediators their readiness to begin implementing the agreement and move to the second phase, provided it receives Israeli approval and that Israel begins implementing the agreement,” a Hamas official told AFP on Aug. 8.
“Hamas is urging the U.S. administration to exert pressure on Israel to compel it to abide by the agreement and move to the second phase,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Trump last week had hailed as a breakthrough that Hamas had agreed to disarmament under the plan, with the Board of Peace saying Israel would in tandem carry out a phased withdrawal from much of Gaza.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a tough reelection fight in October and wide opposition from his right-wing base to the Gaza deal, said last week that Israel had not agreed to the “draft” presented by the Board of Peace.
