Officials warn Hamas too fractured to implement U.S.-brokered Gaza agreement

Political figures such as Khalil al-Hayya reportedly support the deal, while Gaza-based commanders are resistant to ending the war on U.S. terms.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Hamas may not be able to meet the conditions of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan, Arab mediators told The Wall Street Journal, warning that the group’s internal divisions and weakened control on the ground could prevent it from delivering on President Donald Trump’s 20-point proposal to end the Gaza war and free 48 remaining hostages.

According to the report, Hamas leaders remain split over disarmament and the timing of hostage releases.

Political figures such as Khalil al-Hayya reportedly support the deal, while Gaza-based commanders are resistant to ending the war on U.S. terms.

Hamas leader Izz al-Din al-Haddad told mediators he would consider handing over rockets and heavy weapons to Egypt and the UN but sought to keep rifles for “defensive purposes.”

Disagreements have also surfaced over the U.S. demand that Hamas release all hostages within 72 hours, which officials inside Gaza have called unrealistic.

Critics within the organization dismissed the proposal as “a 72-hour truce” rather than a lasting peace deal, insisting that any release of captives must occur alongside a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Mediators expressed skepticism that local fighters would comply with such an agreement, saying many of Hamas’s armed cells now act independently after Israeli strikes disrupted command networks.

With Hamas unable to pay salaries and coordinate operations, discipline has eroded, and some members have drifted toward Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other factions.

Arab and Israeli sources believe Hamas’s initial willingness to negotiate was largely tactical, aimed at buying time to regroup.

Many of its new recruits remain untrained, and internal communication remains limited.

“This is why these negotiations are starting to become real,” said Amir Avivi, a former senior Israeli defense official. “Maybe it’s the first time throughout the war that Hamas is starting to understand that they will be eradicated.”

Mediators cautioned that even if Hamas formally accepts the U.S. plan, its fragmented structure and lack of centralized control may make it impossible to enforce the ceasefire’s key provisions.