Sina Azodi, director of the Middle East Studies Program at George Washington University, said deep mutual distrust between Israel and Hamas is the biggest obstacle to implementing a proposed peace agreement aimed at ending the Gaza war. In an Al Jazeera interview published on August 1, 2026, he noted that the proposed deal includes provisions for Hamas to gradually restrain its weapons.

Azodi said Israeli society remains deeply skeptical of any peace agreement with Hamas, particularly because of the October 7, 2023 attack. He described the plan as positive on paper and said it could help halt violence and restore some normality to people’s lives in the region, but stressed that its real-world implementation remains uncertain.

He said Israelis do not trust Hamas members and Hamas does not trust Israel, with both sides seeking action from the other first. Azodi also identified Hamas’s disarmament as a second major obstacle. Having built itself over years as an armed resistance group, Hamas would have little prospect of surviving as an organization if it accepted full disarmament or surrendered all its weapons.