LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President Trump says his Board of Peace has reached what he calls an historic deal for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. But some of those armed groups are already pushing back against the president's claims. NPR's Frank Langfitt is in Tel Aviv and joins me now. Good morning, Frank.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So tell us more about what Trump says has been agreed to.
LANGFITT: Yeah. He says that as the disarmament of the groups is completed - and want to emphasize it hasn't even started, and sequencing is really important here - that Israeli forces would then begin to withdraw. Now, in a briefing, officials with the Board of Peace said a transitional authority would, quote, hold "a full monopoly" on weapons in the Gaza Strip. They also added that hopefully all the tunnels would be disclosed and destroyed.
And then, of course, we've been talking about this International Stabilization Force, where basically these are peacekeepers. They'd work with a new Palestinian police force to provide security for people in Gaza and its nearby neighbors. But of course, there are not many details on exactly how this all would work.
FADEL: And what about the armed groups, namely Hamas? What are those groups saying this morning?
LANGFITT: It sounds very different than what we've seen from President Trump on Truth Social. They're not framing this as a breakthrough. A Hamas senior official contradicted Trump on a key point about what would happen next. He told NPR that Israel has to uphold its commitments to withdraw from parts of Gaza first before Hamas can move forward. Israeli forces - of course, they control about two-thirds of the territory, and they've squeezed Gazans into the remainder.
Now, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement - it's the second-largest group in Gaza. They sent out a statement saying the agreement that Trump is touting is inaccurate and that the group has reservations as it's currently written. And for the militant groups, I think it's really important for people to remember, giving up weapons could be seen as tantamount to surrender.
FADEL: OK. And what about reaction from the Israeli government?
LANGFITT: One of our producers here has reached out, but there's been no answer yet, and it's been more than 10 hours since President Trump's announcement. Still, Prime Minister Netanyahu - he's silent. Other Israeli officials have told local media they're skeptical about all this, and Israel wouldn't take any action until Hamas is disarmed. President Trump - as I think we know, he's anxious about getting this done. Prime Minister Netanyahu was in Washington this week, and the reception at the White House was pretty chilly.
FADEL: And what are you hearing beyond Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement from other Palestinians?
LANGFITT: Yeah. I was talking to Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. He's the leader of Palestinian National Initiative. This is a democratic Palestinian political movement. And he says, as you're kind of hearing from all parties here, sequencing is really, really important. This is the big sticking point. And it's a little hard to hear on this line, Leila, but Barghouti says President Trump needs to put a lot of pressure on Israel to honor the ceasefire and get this moving forward.
MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: He should exercise pressure on Israel to commit to the ceasefire and stop bombarding Gaza and begin the process of withdrawing from Gaza instead of expanding their occupation.
LANGFITT: Now, since the ceasefire last year, more than 1,100 people in Gaza have been killed. And I should add that even if this deal were to work, it's a huge task. I mean, disarming Hamas, if they go along with it - it would take a very long time, as would training a new police force. And of course, in October, there are elections here in Israel, and it's not clear who will be in charge and what their policies towards Gaza would be.
FADEL: NPR's Frank Langfitt in Tel Aviv, thank you.
LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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