Two weeks after a meeting in Miami between officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey and Steve Witkoff, the envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump, Hamas sources on Thursday claimed that “the American administration understands the nature of the weapons issue and its complexity.”
According to a report in the Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the meeting included an agreement among the parties to accelerate the transition to Phase Two of the Gaza agreement.
The report said the participating and mediating countries presented their perspectives to the U.S. administration regarding weapons in the Gaza Strip, and that Washington understands, as the sources put it, “the nature of the weapons issue and its complexity.”
However, contrary to the claims attributed to Hamas in the Qatari report, Trump clarified his position on Hamas disarmament only this week during a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that Hamas will be given only a short period to disarm, warning that failure to do so would trigger severe consequences, as he strongly backed Israel’s conduct under the Gaza plan and defended Netanyahu’s leadership.
“We talked about Hamas and disarmament,” Trump said after meeting Netanyahu. “Hamas will be given a very short period of time to disarm. And if they don’t disarm, there will be hell to pay.”
The Netanyahu and Trump press conference
(Video: Reuters)
Trump said Hamas had committed to disarm as part of the agreement and stressed that Israel would not be blamed if the process collapses.
“You couldn’t blame Israel,” he said, adding that other countries were prepared to act if Hamas reneges. “Those same countries will go and wipe out Hamas. They don’t even need Israel.”
Trump said as many as 59 countries back the enforcement of the agreement, calling it “real peace in the Middle East.”
Asked whether Israel was moving fast enough toward the next phase of the Gaza plan, Trump rejected the premise outright.
“I’m not concerned about anything that Israel is doing,” he said. “They’ve lived up to the plan. Israel has lived up to the plan 100%.”
Trump repeatedly framed Israel as acting in good faith, saying his concerns lay with others.
“I’m concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren’t doing,” he said.
The meeting capped a series of high-level discussions during Netanyahu’s visit, with Gaza, Iran and regional security dominating the agenda as Washington signaled a tougher line on enforcement and a push to expand regional normalization.