On July 30, the Board of Peace announced an agreement for the staged decommissioning of Hamas weapons in the Gaza Strip. Heavy arms and tunnel networks are to be surrendered under international verification while Israeli forces are to withdraw in phases.
Now, however, Hamas says it will hand over nothing until Israel first pulls back. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu notes that Israel never accepted those terms. The sequencing is unresolved and may remain unresolved for months. The shape of the deal is not. Hamas is being offered political survival in exchange for its guns.
