The Peace Council, established by US President Donald Trump, has urged the Palestinian group "Hamas" to finalize an agreement to demilitarize the Gaza Strip by the end of this week, thus increasing pressure on the group to relinquish its control over the enclave, four diplomats familiar with the negotiations said, quoted by the US newspaper "New York Times", writes BTA.
The Peace Council, which is an international body created to monitor the six-month ceasefire in Gaza, is urging the "Hamas" movement to hand over its entire stockpile of weapons and to hand over maps showing its network of underground tunnels.
Representatives of the Peace Council and "Hamas" are expected to meet today to reach an agreement to demilitarize the enclave by the end of this week, the four diplomats said. Although they expressed firmness about the deadline, it could still change.
If Gaza is demilitarized, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) could withdraw from all territory they control in the enclave, according to a Peace Council document obtained by The New York Times. Israeli restrictions on the supply of vital goods to the enclave would also be lifted, the group's fighters could be amnestied, and caravans could be delivered for temporary accommodation.
The High Representative of the Gaza Peace Council, Nickolay Mladenov, handed over the disarmament proposal to Hamas leaders last month.
On Friday last week, Mladenov expressed the opinion that serious consequences could occur if Hamas refused to demilitarize Gaza.
"He who does not cross the river will drown in the sea," Mladenov wrote on the social network Ex.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to disarm Hamas by force if the group refuses to hand over its weapons. With Israeli elections approaching this year, Netanyahu would be willing to launch a new military campaign in Gaza, especially if Hamas retains control of the enclave, Israeli experts say. Some of the Israeli prime minister's supporters are calling on him to wrest control of Gaza from Hamas by force.
The peace council has told Hamas that it will insist that Israel abide by its commitments under a ceasefire agreement signed last October. The council has already been pressuring Israel to allow at least 600 trucks of humanitarian aid to pass through to Gaza.
If Hamas agrees to disarm, it could pave the way for rebuilding the Gaza Strip, devastated by two years of war. The US and Israel's condition for the post-war reconstruction of Gaza is precisely the handover of Hamas's military arsenal.
The spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, Abu Obeida, pointed out, however, that the Palestinian group is not inclined to accept the Peace Council's disarmament plan, as the group refuses to make concessions to Israel at the negotiating table that the IDF has not won on the battlefield.
"Addressing the weapons issue in such a crude manner is a scandalous attempt by the occupier to continue killing and exterminating at the expense of our people," Obeida stressed on Sunday. He said instead that Israel must abide by its obligations under the ceasefire agreement of last October before major talks on Hamas disarmament can take place.
Hamas representatives met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul over the weekend. Arab and Turkish mediators have encouraged Hamas to approach the demilitarization plan constructively, two Arab officials said.