Trump warns Hamas will be 'blown away' if it fails to disarm
“They were born with a weapon in their hands, so it's not easy to do," Trump said.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Hamas will be “blown away” if the militant group doesn’t hand over its weapons as required by the US-brokered ceasefire.
“Hamas has agreed to give up their weapons,” Trump said at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. "They were born with a rifle in their hand. It's not an easy thing for them, but that's what they agreed to.”
Since agreeing to the ceasefire in mid-October, Hamas has offered mixed messages on whether the group will disarm. One of its senior officials in Doha, Basem Naim, told Al-Monitor in December that Hamas would begin laying down its weapons as part of a long-term ceasefire that includes guarantees that Israel won’t resume its attacks.
Last week, a US official briefing reporters on condition of anonymity said that Hamas’ disarmament is a “real possibility” even for a group that’s made armed struggle against Israel central to its identity. The official said the plan would likely involve Hamas’ “heavy weaponry, like RPGs, rocket launchers and missiles” being “put into a place where they’re not being used.”
In response to a question from Al-Monitor last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested negotiators could accept a disarmament plan that would allow Hamas to retain some of its smaller arms while surrendering its rockets and other heavy weapons.
“If they don't do it, they'll be blown away very quickly," Trump said of Hamas’ disarmament, adding that negotiators will know in the coming weeks “whether or not they're going to do it.”
The US president spoke a day before world leaders are set to convene in Davos for a signing ceremony of the Board of Peace that will temporarily oversee the Gaza Strip’s post-war governance and reconstruction. A number of Middle Eastern leaders, including from Egypt, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, have accepted invitations to join the board despite concerns that its proposed charter indicates the Trump-led body will mediate in conflicts beyond Gaza.
On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions on six Gaza-based organizations that it said purport to provide medical care to civilians while supporting Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The department also designated the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, a diaspora group founded in 2017 that Treasury said is “clandestinely controlled by Hamas” and has backed several of the activist flotillas that tried to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza during the war.
This developing story has been updated since initial publication.
