US President Trump has claimed that Hamas will have “hell to pay” if it does not completely disarm in a “fairly short period of time”.
Speaking after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during a bilateral summit at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump expressed his hope that the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire will be agreed “very quickly”.
This phase will see a further staggered withdrawal of IDF troops from the Strip and lay the groundwork for negotiations of a permanent peace deal.
"If [Hamas] don’t disarm as they agreed to do – they agreed to it – then there’ll be hell to pay for them and we don’t want that, we’re not looking for that. But they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time,” he told reporters.
"It’ll be horrible for them [if they don’t disarm]. It’s going to be really, really bad for them, and I don’t want that to happen.
"But they made an agreement that they were going to disarm. And you couldn’t blame Israel.”
When asked about the prospect of Israeli troop withdrawals, though, he said that the matter was a “separate subject”, before adding: “We’ll talk about that.
The ceasefire is currently at something of a stalemate, with Hamas refusing to disarm until the Israeli has fully withdrawn from the Strip and vice versa.
Under the original 20-point plan published by the White House in September, the Israeli withdrawal and the “demilitarisation” of Gaza were intended to be conducted concurrently and overseen by the planned International Stabilisation Force (ISF).
Meanwhile, Trump also gave his full backing to Israel’s conduct in Gaza and batted away accusations of ceasefire violations.
"[I am] not concerned about anything that Israel is doing,” he said. "Israel has lived up to the plan, 100 per cent.”
However, the two leaders reportedly clashed over Israel’s policy in the West Bank, particularly in the wake of Jerusalem’s approval of a raft of new settlements last week.
The measure, backed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, allows the creation of 19 settlements, including 11 newly-built communities and eight formerly illegal outposts which will now be recognised under Israeli law.
At the time, Smotrich said that the proposal was designed to separate sections of the West Bank, with the intention of blocking a potential Palestinian state.
"We are stopping the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state on the ground. We will continue to develop, build and settle in the land of our ancestors, with faith in the righteousness of the path," he said.
Around half of the settlements will be located along the "green line", which separates Israel from the territory.
The other half will sit further into the West Bank and include several which were evacuated during the 2005 disengagement from Gaza.
One US official reportedly told The Times of Israel that the president and top aides raised the issue during meetings with Netanyahu, as well as the spike in settler violence over the past year.
The discussion were described as “cordial”, but reportedly saw the American delegation suggest that Israel’s policies was harming efforts to secure peace in Gaza and expand the Abraham Accords.
Addressing the concerns publicly, Trump said: “We have had a big discussion for a long time on the West Bank, and I wouldn’t say we agree on the West Bank 100 per cent. But we’ll come to a conclusion on the West Bank.”
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