Islamic Jihad's Reported Shift on Disarmament: A Crack Opens in Gaza's Last Holdout Position

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Iran-aligned faction that has stood as the most visible holdout against the Gaza disarmament framework brokered under US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace," has reportedly agreed to the deal, according to sources cited by Al Arabiya. If confirmed, the shift would close one of the last remaining gaps in an agreement that Hamas itself signed onto in principle late last week.

From Rejection to Reported Acceptance
The reported reversal marks a notable change in posture. Just days earlier, PIJ publicly dismissed reports that a disarmament agreement had been reached, with a member of the group's political bureau describing the circulating document as an unresolved draft to which the movement had raised objections. Ali Abu Shahin, a member of PIJ's political bureau, went further in comments to The New Arab, saying the group supported any arrangement capable of easing Gaza's humanitarian crisis but still held reservations over the draft's failure to bind Israel to clear, enforceable guarantees.

Palestinian sources speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat had earlier assessed that PIJ's objections would prove the easier of two obstacles to resolve the other being Israel's own resistance to the terms. One source close to the talks noted that PIJ's military structure is neither large nor comparable in scale to Hamas's, making its position in the negotiations inherently more flexible under sustained US and mediator pressure.

What the Underlying Deal Requires
The framework at the centre of these talks was announced by Trump's Board of Peace on 30 July, following days of negotiations in Cairo involving mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye. It sets out a phased disarmament process under which Hamas and other armed factions, explicitly including groups like Islamic Jihad, would surrender weapons in stages to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the technocratic body established to govern the enclave once fighting ends. The document specifies that no weapons will be transferred to Israel or any non-Palestinian party, and that the National Committee alone will retain custody of arms once the process concludes. Heavy weapons, tunnel networks and manufacturing sites are to be decommissioned over a longer timeline, reportedly spanning several months, while an international stabilization force trains a new Palestinian police service and positions it between Palestinian factions and withdrawing Israeli troops.

Hamas has conditioned its own compliance on Israel first halting military operations and beginning its withdrawal, and Israeli officials have themselves publicly objected to elements of the plan, with a senior official quoted as saying Israel will not pull back from Gaza until it sees what it considers genuine disarmament. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly pressed Hamas negotiators not to sign the agreement at all, underscoring how contested the process remains even among parties nominally aligned against Israel.

Why Islamic Jihad's Position Matters
PIJ's weapons stockpile is smaller than Hamas's, but its symbolic weight in these negotiations has always exceeded its battlefield footprint. As the most ideologically rigid of Gaza's armed factions and the group most directly tied to Tehran, PIJ's public alignment or refusal to align with a US-brokered disarmament process has served as a barometer for how much of Gaza's resistance infrastructure Washington and its mediators can plausibly claim to have dismantled. A reported PIJ acceptance, even a conditional one, would let the Board of Peace argue that the disarmament framework now commands support beyond Hamas alone, strengthening the political case for pressing Israel to reciprocate with a phased withdrawal.

It would not, however, resolve the deeper structural tension in the deal: implementation still hinges on Israeli compliance that Israeli officials themselves have not confirmed, and on an international stabilization force whose composition remains unsettled. Until weapons are physically handed over and independently verified, factional statements of agreement PIJ's included remain political positioning rather than proof that Gaza's disarmament has actually begun.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.
International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP
mustysallama@gmail.com
+233-555-275-880

References
Yahoo News, "Palestinian Islamic Jihad rejects reported Gaza disarmament deal." https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/palestinian-islamic-jihad-rejects-reported-091835113.html

Asharq Al-Awsat, "Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Gaza Understandings Likely to Overcome Israeli, Islamic Jihad Objections." https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5302235-sources-asharq-al-awsat-gaza-understandings-likely-overcome-israeli-islamic

Al Jazeera, "Hamas reaches Gaza disarmament agreement with Board of Peace," 30 July 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/30/trump-says-board-of-peace-reaches-agreement-on-disarmament-of-hamas-in-gaza

The New Arab, "Hope follows Hamas's disarmament plan, but Israel remains silent." https://www.newarab.com/news/hope-follows-hamass-disarmament-plan-israel-remains-silent

Middle East Eye, "Hamas says it will 'disarm when Israel keeps its word'." https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-disarm-when-israel-keeps-its-word-gazas-weapons-stay-palestinian

The Times of Israel, "Trump claims Israel 'very happy' about Hamas disarmament deal, as Netanyahu indicates otherwise." https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-claims-israel-very-happy-about-hamas-disarmament-deal-as-netanyahu-indicates-otherwise/

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