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Trump claims agreement for 'complete disarmament' of Hamas in Gaza but support uncertain
Donald Trump has said a deal has been reached for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza, however briefings from both sides exposed disputes over its implementation that could prove difficult to overcome. Senior Hamas officials have reportedly agreed to the plan, but the question of whether the group disarms before or after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza has already emerged as a point of contention. '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. Earlier an Israeli official told the Reuters news agency that the proposed terms were not satisfactory. 'Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and the complete demilitarisation of the Strip as a precondition for any process,' the official said, adding that the plan under discussion did not 'provide a satisfactory response to these demands and Israel conveyed its objections'. Hamad told AFP: 'This process will take about 14 days, or perhaps longer. We must agree on every detail: how the agreement will be implemented, when it will be implemented and the mechanisms for carrying it out.'