Israel must approve disarmament agreement before Hamas will implement, says Hamas official

CAIRO, July 31 (Reuters) - Implementation of the deal to bring peace to Gaza announced by U.S. President Donald Trump will depend on Israel first meeting its commitments under an agreement reached last year, a senior Hamas official told Reuters on Friday. Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas official involved in the negotiations, said the agreement was a 'comprehensive framework' that went beyond the issue of disarmament and would depend on Israel implementing the first phase of an agreement hammered out last year in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Under that agreement, he said Israel was obliged to end its attacks in Gaza and withdraw its forces to where they stood in October, as well as increase the flow of goods and aid coming into the enclave. Only then would Hamas agree to hand over its weapons to the new National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the technocratic body set up to run the enclave. 'We insisted to the mediators that Israel must abide by the agreement,' he said. On Thursday, an Israeli official said Israel would not agree to withdraw behind the so-called Yellow Line before Hamas is disarmed and the Gaza Strip is demilitarized.