US Envoy Claims Hamas Pledged to Disarm in Ceasefire Talks

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has claimed that Hamas officials privately told him and fellow Trump aide Jared Kushner that the militant group would agree to disarm as part of the broader ceasefire agreement reached last month.

The stunning assertion, made during a conference in Miami on Thursday, suggests a dramatic, behind-the-scenes shift in Hamas's long-held position and paints a picture of a U.S.-led diplomatic effort that is actively working to establish a formal "decommissioning process" for weapons in Gaza, a plan Witkoff says will be buttressed by a "terrific" development plan and a "tremendous jobs program."

This optimistic account, as reported by The Times of Israel, however, stands in stark contrast to Hamas's own public statements and is complicated by the volatile and dangerous reality on the ground in Gaza, where, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, hundreds of armed Hamas fighters remain trapped in tunnels, posing a significant and immediate threat to the fragile, U.S.-brokered truce.

While Witkoff's claims offer a tantalizing glimpse of a potential path toward a lasting peace, the vast chasm between his private assurances and the public and operational realities suggests that the road to a demilitarized Gaza is still fraught with immense and perhaps insurmountable obstacles.

Speaking at the conference in Miami, Witkoff provided a surprisingly detailed account of what he described as a pivotal "famous meeting" with Hamas officials, which he said took place just hours before the ceasefire was formally inked on October 9.

It was in this meeting, he claimed, that the critical pledge to disarm was made. "I hope that they keep their word," Witkoff stated, linking this supposed commitment to a powerful economic incentive. "Because if they do, they’ll understand that the development plan that we have for Gaza is really terrific—a lot better than anyone has ever discussed before."

Witkoff went further, outlining the active steps the U.S. is taking to translate this alleged pledge into a concrete mechanism. "We are in the middle of standing up a decommissioning process [for] weapons—a demilitarization and amnesty program," he revealed.

He also claimed that Hamas had expressed a willingness to cooperate with an international security presence, a position the group has repeatedly and publicly rejected.

"Hamas has always said that we’re going to need the international security force to come in here and be the layer [that] they give the weapons to," Witkoff said, adding that he hopes to have that force stood up within the next three weeks. "That’ll be the inflection point where we see if everyone’s going to do as they say and demilitarize," he concluded.

This picture of cooperation and impending disarmament, however, is immediately clouded by conflicting information from multiple sources.

The Times of Israel report itself notes that Hamas officials have publicly taken a completely different stance, either insisting that the group will not disarm or dodging the question entirely when pressed.

Privately, Arab diplomats familiar with the matter have provided a more nuanced, and still problematic, account. They told the newspaper that Hamas has indicated an "openness to give up their heavy weaponry, while holding on to lighter arms."

This partial disarmament, the diplomats noted, would likely be a "non-starter for Israel," given that those same light arms were used to kill Israelis during the October 7 attacks and are also used to suppress internal dissent within Gaza.

The most significant and immediate challenge to Witkoff's optimistic timeline, however, is the explosive situation unfolding underground in the Israeli-controlled parts of Gaza.

A detailed report in The Wall Street Journal has revealed that hundreds of armed Hamas fighters are trapped in the group's extensive tunnel network, cut off from their command, with dwindling supplies, and still willing to engage Israeli forces.

These militants, a remnant of Israeli efforts to clear and segment the tunnel system before the ceasefire, now pose one of the biggest threats to the stability of the truce.

The Journal reported that these trapped fighters have already killed three Israeli soldiers and injured several others in sporadic clashes since the ceasefire began. One such incident, where militants emerged from a hidden shaft and killed two soldiers with an antitank missile, prompted a retaliatory round of Israeli airstrikes that killed dozens of people in Gaza.

This volatile situation has become a major sticking point in ongoing negotiations. According to Arab officials cited by the Journal, Hamas wants Israel to provide the fighters with safe passage into Hamas-controlled territory. Israel, on the other hand, wants them to surrender or be killed.

The talks to resolve the standoff are complex and politically charged. The U.S. reportedly broached the idea of offering the fighters safe passage, with one proposal involving an evacuation by the Red Cross. Israel initially agreed but demanded that the fighters give up their weapons and tied their safe passage to the return of more deceased Israeli hostages.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly reversed this position after a public outcry from lawmakers who demanded that the militants be either detained or killed. "To let them leave safely a moment before Israeli fighters close in on them and eliminate them is a security and moral folly,” wrote Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on social media.

This dangerous and unresolved situation on the ground makes the prospect of a smooth and imminent "decommissioning process" seem distant. The very existence of these armed and hostile pockets of fighters, with whom Hamas itself claims to have lost and only recently regained communication, fundamentally complicates any plan for a comprehensive disarmament.

The broader U.S. strategy for Gaza, as outlined by The Wall Street Journal, is to advance as quickly as possible to the next phase of the ceasefire, which envisages the deployment of an international stabilization force to secure the enclave, followed by the disarmament of Hamas.

However, both of these aspects remain highly contentious. The establishment of the multinational force is facing complications over disagreements about its mandate—whether it should be actively involved in disarming Hamas or play a more traditional peacekeeping role.

It is into this complex and volatile environment that Witkoff has injected his claims of a secret Hamas pledge to disarm.

His statement can be interpreted in several ways. It could be a genuine, if perhaps overly optimistic, reflection of private assurances made during high-stakes negotiations. It could also be a strategic move, a public statement designed to put pressure on Hamas to live up to commitments that may have been made in principle but are far from being implemented. 

By publicly linking the prospect of a "terrific" development plan to the act of disarmament, the U.S. is creating a powerful incentive for the group to cooperate, while also framing any future breakdown of the process as a failure on Hamas's part to keep its word.

For now, the world is left with two vastly different pictures of the situation in Gaza. One, painted by the U.S. envoy, is a hopeful vision of imminent demilitarization, economic revival, and a new era of stability ushered in by an international force.

The other, detailed in reports from the ground, is a grim reality of armed militants trapped in tunnels, a fragile truce punctuated by deadly violence, and a deep and unresolved chasm between the fundamental demands of the warring parties. The coming weeks, as Witkoff himself noted, will be the "inflection point" that determines which of these two pictures becomes the reality.