Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has congratulated Hamas’ newly elected political bureau chief, Khalil al-Hayya, and reaffirmed Tehran’s support for the group.
Hamas said on Monday that Pezeshkian made the pledge during a phone call with al-Hayya, telling him Iran would continue to support the Palestinian cause despite the attacks facing the group.
The reported call comes as Trump pushes a 15-point roadmap that calls for Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza and surrender its weapons as part of a broader postwar transition.
The reported conversation underscores a central challenge facing Trump’s initiative: Iran, a longstanding political, military and financial backer of Hamas, continues to publicly support the group even as Washington seeks to remove it from power and dismantle its armed capabilities.
Pezeshkian was quoted as telling al-Hayya, “We are with you, and we support you in every action you take, despite the attacks we are facing.”
Trump recently announced what he described as a “HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups,” presenting the initiative as a breakthrough after nearly three years of war.
The agreement’s implementation faces significant obstacles, particularly over Hamas’ weapons. Trump has linked Gaza’s reconstruction to the group’s disarmament, raising questions about whether Hamas will surrender the arsenal that underpins its influence and whether the proposed Board of Peace can enforce the process.
Trump’s Board of Peace is the administration’s main vehicle for implementing the Gaza plan and potentially extending the president’s approach to other international conflicts.
Trump chairs the board, whose executive leadership includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The White House says the board will oversee Gaza’s transition, mobilise reconstruction funding and hold the parties accountable for implementing the agreement.
Tensions also emerged Monday on the Israeli side after Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s director-general and high representative for Gaza, and board adviser Aryeh Lightstone met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged Israel to halt its attacks in Gaza. Israel appeared to reject the board’s two central demands shortly afterward.
“Israel will not withdraw from its current line in the Gaza Strip and will continue to thwart any threat to our civilians and soldiers,” an Israeli political official said.
The statement indicated that Israel was, at least for now, rejecting calls to return its forces to the “yellow line” and halt targeted strikes in Gaza.
A Board of Peace official declined to comment on the meeting but said the body remained focused on implementing the roadmap.
“We are focused on implementation. “We have provided a pragmatic path forward to transform Gaza by removing Hamas from power and seeing it hand over its weapons.” The official added that the steps would improve living conditions in Gaza and strengthen Israel’s security.
Hamas, meanwhile, has said it agreed only to a phased and conditional process involving the storage of weapons after Israel stops its attacks, withdraws its forces and allows additional aid into Gaza.
The group has avoided using the term “disarmament” in its statements and has insisted that its weapons remain under Palestinian control rather than being surrendered to Israel or an international force.
Under the Board of Peace’s 15-point roadmap, Hamas would transfer Gaza’s civilian government and security responsibilities to a Palestinian technocratic body known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
Hamas-run police would surrender their weapons to the committee, while heavy weapons, military production facilities, weapons depots and tunnels would be addressed later through a phased decommissioning process linked to an Israeli withdrawal.
The intended outcome is for the new Palestinian authority to be the only body possessing or controlling weapons in Gaza. However, the roadmap leaves unresolved questions over enforcement, the definition of compliance and which side must act first.
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Hamas’ disarmament remains a major obstacle to Gaza’s reconstruction. Trump has tied rebuilding efforts to the group laying down its weapons, while The Associated Press reported that the Board of Peace had secured about $7 billion in pledges by February, well below the estimated $70 billion required to rebuild the territory.
Moumen al-Natour, a Palestinian lawyer from Gaza and co-founder of the anti-Hamas “We Want to Live” movement, said civilians desperately wanted the agreement to succeed but remained sceptical that Hamas would relinquish power.
“Civilian people inside Gaza Strip want safety, want to stop this war, want a new government, want to be alive,” al-Natour said.
Al-Natour, who was previously imprisoned by Hamas, said he did not trust the group to comply with the agreement, arguing that it had repeatedly arrested and killed Palestinians who opposed its rule.
He also questioned whether an international force numbering only a few hundred personnel would be sufficient to secure Gaza or prevent Hamas from intimidating residents. He said a substantially larger force and a new Palestinian police structure would be needed.
The “We Want to Live” movement, which draws support from thousands of Gazan professionals who oppose Hamas’ ideology, is advocating for the rebuilding of Gaza’s civil society and cooperation with the Board of Peace and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
Al-Natour has also proposed allowing civilians seeking to leave Hamas-controlled areas to move into protected zones near the “yellow line” — the boundary separating Israeli-held territory from the rest of Gaza where they could live under a new Palestinian administration supported by an international security force.
He said the arrangement could offer Gazans a safer alternative while a post-Hamas governing structure is established.
Michael Milstein, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who now heads the Palestinian Studies Centre at Tel Aviv University, said the proposed compromise had been developing for months under pressure from Qatar, Turkey and Egypt.
Milstein said Hamas might be willing to surrender control of Gaza’s day-to-day administration and accept restrictions on heavy weapons but was unlikely to completely abandon its armed organization.
Under the model Hamas appears to favour, Milstein said, a technocratic government and international forces would take responsibility for public services and reconstruction while Hamas retained its personnel, infrastructure and political influence — an arrangement he compared with Hezbollah’s longstanding position in Lebanon.
“There is a very, very low chance that Hamas will completely disarm,” Milstein said, describing the roadmap as the kind of “gray area” Hamas had historically used to its advantage. The Board of Peace is also pressing the parties to avoid actions that could derail the agreement.
After Israeli strikes reportedly killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies over the weekend, Mladenov called for de-escalation without explicitly naming Israel.
“Two days of strikes across Gaza have killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies,” Mladenov wrote on X, adding that he was working with the parties and regional mediators to “create the space for the full implementation of the President’s plan.”
Israel, however, maintains that it will not withdraw before Hamas genuinely disarms, while Hamas insists that Israel must withdraw first. The roadmap is also facing opposition within Israel’s government.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlements Minister Orit Strock urged Netanyahu on Monday to convene the security cabinet immediately and block an international stabilization force from entering Gaza, according to Israel’s N12 news outlet.
In an urgent letter reported on Aug. 3, the ministers described the Board of Peace roadmap as “dangerous to Israel” and argued that it conflicted with Israel’s stated objectives of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza.
They objected to weapons being placed under the authority of a new Palestinian body rather than removed from Gaza or handed over to Israel. They also opposed Israeli forces beginning to withdraw while the disarmament process remained incomplete.
The ministers further argued that the proposed international force would monitor the separation between Israeli troops and the new Palestinian administration rather than directly disarm Hamas.
They called on Netanyahu to block implementation until the roadmap was revised to require full demilitarization before an Israeli withdrawal.
The opposition highlights that Trump’s plan faces challenges not only from Hamas but also from influential members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, particularly over the sequencing, enforcement and security provisions of the agreement.
For now, Trump’s proposed Gaza transition hinges on the same unresolved issue that has complicated previous negotiations: whether Hamas is prepared to surrender the weapons underpinning its power or intends to preserve its armed capabilities and influence as reconstruction begins.
Fox News
