Hamas has accepted a framework to completely disarm in Gaza for the first time, according to BBC correspondent Rushdi Abualouf reporting from Cairo. The plan calls for inventorying and storing heavy weapons under Palestinian supervision rather than handing them over to Israel, potentially removing a major obstacle to a Trump-backed peace initiative.
A senior Hamas official told the BBC the talks were "long and extremely difficult". The move follows leadership elections that brought Gaza-based leader Khalil al-Hayya to the head of the movement. If implemented, it could mark the first credible step towards ending the nearly three-year war, though implementation remains uncertain and many Palestinians have grown sceptical after years of failed ceasefires, BBC News reports.
Iran held a funeral in the northwestern city of Zanjan on Friday for three Revolutionary Guard members it says were killed in a US strike, Al Jazeera reports.
The identities of the dead and circumstances of the reported strike were not detailed in the available report.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it carried out a retaliatory attack on a US military base in Kuwait on Thursday, according to Al Jazeera. The claim comes after US strikes on Iran, including one on a building on Qeshm Island that killed two adults and a two-year-old child, Al Jazeera reports.
US President Donald Trump will be "very disappointed" if Israel obstructs his 20-point Gaza reconstruction plan, a senior US official said on Thursday, according to the Times of Israel. The warning followed Netanyahu's office rejecting Hamas's approval of a disarmament proposal, saying it did not meet Israel's demands for full demilitarization.
"We're not asking Israel to do anything that isn't in the 20-point plan that they agreed to initially," the official told reporters. "If they don't, President Trump would be very, very disappointed." The official said the US intends to "hold Israel to its commitments" and "be a fair broker" after Hamas approved the disarmament plan put forward by Trump's Board of Peace.
Former US Ambassador to the UAE Barbara Leaf has warned that escalating US-Iran tensions deliver no decisive outcome, telling Al Jazeera the approach is "fairly pointless".
Leaf said de-escalation and direct negotiation are the only ways to prevent wider regional conflict.
The Gaza Board of Peace says Hamas has agreed to a disarmament roadmap matched by Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. A Hamas delegation member told Al Jazeera implementation would be conditioned on Israel fulfilling its obligations.
Israeli forces struck southern Lebanese towns near Beaufort Castle, the military saying it used 700 tonnes of explosives to destroy parts of a Hezbollah tunnel network, Al Jazeera reports.
Israel agreed in June to a phased withdrawal from Lebanon, with the Lebanese military to take over disarming Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has blown up a Hezbollah tunnel network beneath the Beaufort Ridge in southern Lebanon using 700 tons of explosives, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Thursday night. The demolition was carried out in response to what they called a "blatant" violation of a ceasefire agreement on Wednesday, when Hezbollah targeted an unmanned bulldozer with a drone.
The tunnel system, which served as a "central part of the Hezbollah terror organization's invasion plan against the Galilee communities," had been scheduled for destruction earlier but was postponed following a framework deal reached in June. The IDF said it had demolished "several key underground routes" in the area over recent weeks, Times of Israel reports.
A senior US official has warned that President Donald Trump will be "very disappointed" if Israel blocks progress on his Gaza reconstruction plan, according to a Times of Israel liveblog on Friday.
The official told reporters the Palestinian Authority must demonstrate it can govern the West Bank before being considered to administer Gaza. The US has also been consulting ousted Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan on postwar management of the Strip, the official confirmed.
US President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that an agreement has been reached for Hamas to fully disarm, paving the way for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and deployment of an international stabilisation force, Al Jazeera reports.
Neither Israel nor Hamas has publicly confirmed the claim.
US President Donald Trump announced that the Board of Peace has reached an agreement for the "complete disarmament" of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. A senior Hamas official told the BBC the group has agreed to the plan, with an official statement to follow soon; Israel has not yet commented.
The agreement concludes months of negotiations and is part of the second phase of a US-brokered ceasefire plan that also includes Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and reconstruction efforts. Trump said Israel would withdraw "as disarmament is completed" and called it "a critical step towards Gaza finally being governed by a new Palestinian government." The plan provides for inventorying and storage of Hamas's remaining heavy weapons under Palestinian supervision, with smaller groups to be disarmed first before Hamas dismantles its military infrastructure, BBC News reports.
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