Trump declares Hamas ready to disarm, credits Kushner and Witkoff

President Trump claims Hamas is ready to disarm as the US presses Israel and Hamas to move forward with the stalled Gaza plan.

By World Israel News Staff

President Donald Trump declared over the weekend that Hamas is ready to give up its weapons, offering an optimistic assessment of efforts to demilitarize Gaza despite continuing disputes between Israel and the terror group over which side must act first.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump cited Gaza as evidence of the effectiveness of his administration’s diplomacy, pointing to the return of the hostages and the sharp decline in large-scale fighting since the US-brokered agreement took effect.

“Hamas is now willing to give up their weapons,” Trump said. He went on to praise US special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

“They’ve done an incredible job. Nobody could’ve done the job they did.”

Trump did not say whether Hamas had begun physically surrendering weapons or provide a timetable for doing so. His declaration came only days after officials from the US-led Board of Peace acknowledged that implementation of the Gaza agreement remains stalled and blamed violations by both Israel and Hamas.

“Both sides are still violating the 20-point agreement,” Board officials told Ynet, while saying Washington was attempting to return the parties to the framework and begin the process of removing Hamas’s heavy and light weapons.

The comments underscore the central contradiction surrounding the Gaza process: Trump is publicly presenting Hamas’ disarmament as increasingly attainable, while officials working on implementation say Israeli military actions, Hamas violations and disagreements over sequencing continue to impede the plan.

The latest US-backed roadmap calls for Hamas and other armed factions to relinquish military control of Gaza while a Palestinian technocratic administration, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, assumes civilian and security responsibilities.

Under the plan published this summer, heavy weapons, weapons-production facilities, depots and tunnels would be progressively decommissioned as Israeli forces withdraw in stages. An international verification body would certify compliance, while an International Stabilization Force would support the transition and help train Palestinian police.

The fundamental dispute has been over timing.

Israel insists that Hamas must be completely disarmed and Gaza fully demilitarized before the IDF gives up the territory it currently controls.

Hamas has argued that Israel must first halt military operations, carry out agreed withdrawals and meet other ceasefire commitments before the weapons process proceeds.

Hamas has reportedly accepted placing weapons under the authority of the new Palestinian administration but has resisted Israel’s demand that full disarmament precede withdrawal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the US sequencing last month, saying Israel would not withdraw until Hamas had been completely disarmed. The position put Jerusalem at odds with the phased approach favored by Trump’s team.

Board of Peace officials have meanwhile criticized not only Hamas but also Israel.

They cited launches from Gaza toward Israeli communities as violations by the Palestinian side, but argued that certain Israeli strikes and other tactical operations were damaging the broader effort to obtain Hamas’s disarmament.

The officials warned that if Hamas ultimately refuses to relinquish its weapons, Israel would be in a far stronger diplomatic position to resume large-scale military action after demonstrating that the negotiated route had failed. They argued that continuing limited operations in the meantime risked undermining that strategy.

That criticism mirrors unusually candid remarks Kushner made earlier this month.

“We’re working through some political issues in Israel,” Kushner said, linking the difficulties partly to the country’s October 27 election. He described the election as making Israeli decision-making “a little irrational in certain regards.”

Kushner nevertheless said Washington and Jerusalem broadly agree on the desired outcome: Hamas removed from military control, a new administration governing Gaza and reconstruction beginning under international supervision.

He also cautioned against underestimating the size of the task, saying US officials had begun to understand the extraordinary extent of Hamas’s military infrastructure in Gaza. “Demilitarizing it is not going to be easy,” he said.

Trump on Sunday nevertheless portrayed the broader Gaza effort as an administration success, particularly the recovery of the hostages.

“Look at the fact we got all the hostages back,” he said.