Donald Trump has said that Hamas will be forced to disarm after questions swirled around the group’s status following the signing of a peace deal meant to bring an end to the war in Gaza.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Trump said: “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them and it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.
“But they will disarm, do you understand me?” he added, saying it should take place in a “reasonable period of time”.
As a Trump-brokered ceasefire comes into effect in Gaza this week, one of the greatest question marks remains the White House’s plans to force Hamas to disarm and leave Gaza if and when the second phase of his 20-point peace deal comes into effect.
The US president’s own remarks had suggested the group may continue to play a limited role in Gaza, as revelations surfaced of a direct meeting between White House envoys and Hamas negotiators in the highest-level summit ever held between the two sides.
Earlier this week, he admitted the group would have a “limited role” in maintaining order in the short term, raising questions about how the White House may seek to wrangle a peace deal that attempts to restrain Hamas and Israel from resuming the conflict.
Video released on Tuesday by Hamas showed the group’s members executing eight blindfolded, bound and kneeling men whom it called “collaborators and outlaws”. Agence France-Presse, which reported the video, said Hamas was targeting “Palestinian criminal gangs and clans” in Gaza after the signing of a ceasefire between the group and Israel.
Aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters Hamas would continue to have a limited role in enforcing security operations before phase two of the peace deal started, despite the fact his 20-point deal expressly said that the group will disarm and abandon its aim to control the Gaza Strip.
“[Hamas] are standing because they do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time,” Trump said.
The rebuilding of Gaza, he said, would be dangerous and difficult, suggesting the US needed to work with forces on the ground to make that possible.
Speaking in Egypt earlier, Trump said phase two of his peace deal had “started, as far as we’re concerned”, but then said some elements would be implemented over time.
“Phase two has started,” he said. “The phases are all a little bit mixed in with each other. You’re gonna start cleaning up. You look at Gaza – it needs a lot of cleanup.”
Those remarks followed a meeting last week between senior Hamas leaders and the US’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who provided a personal guarantee that Trump would restrain Israel from resuming the conflict if Hamas signed the peace agreement.
The meeting was held on Wednesday between Trump’s envoys and a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, the militant group’s political leader, who survived an assassination attempt by Israel in Doha last month.
The meeting, which was first reported by the US news website Axios, was the first between the White House and Hamas since the US envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, met Hamas leaders in Doha in March to try to secure the release of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, as well as the remains of four other Americans held by the group.
During last week’s 45-minute meeting, Witkoff reportedly told Hamas that the hostages were “more of a liability than an asset for you” and it was time to facilitate a hostage exchange.
“President Trump’s message is that you will be treated fairly and that he stands behind all 20 points of his peace plan and will make sure they are all implemented,” Witkoff said, according to the Axios source.
The direct meeting was instrumental in securing the deal, the outlet reported, with the spy chiefs of Egypt, Turkey and Qatar speaking privately with Hamas negotiators and then telling Witkoff and Kushner: “Based on the meeting we just had, we have a deal.”
