Netanyahu: Disarmament must precede reconstruction, warns ‘it will happen the easy way or the hard way’
Debris in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. By WAFA (Q2915969) in contract with a local company (APAimages)?? – Correspondence with Wiki Palestine (Q117834684)??, Public Domain, Wikipedia
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed that the next step in the Gaza Strip must be the disarmament of Hamas, following the return of the remains of Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage in Gaza, on Monday.
Trump’s remarks came as a surprise after the U.S. had reportedly been pressuring Israel to open the Rafah border crossing with Egypt as part of the transition to the second phase of the ceasefire plan, partly to enable the start of reconstruction in the Rafah area by the entry of building materials.
In an interview with Axios’ Barak Ravid, President Trump spoke of the difficulty in finding Gvili’s body, saying the terror group “had to go through hundreds of bodies.” Hamas “worked very hard” to return the body of Israel’s final deceased hostage, Ran Gvili, President Trump said. “They were working with Israel on it. You can imagine how hard it was.”
The U.S. president said that there was significant skepticism regarding the ability to return Gvili’s remains due to the significant destruction in Gaza.
“It was a hard scene,” Trump said. “This is bigger than people realize. Apart from the Gvili family and people in Israel, no one believed that we would bring back all the hostages. It was a big moment. Please tell the parents that I am very happy.”
The operation to recover Gvili’s body was partially based on information provided by Hamas, Axios reported. Israeli media said that Hamas only confirmed Israeli intelligence regarding the location after being pressured by the mediating countries.
After praising Hamas’ cooperation in the operation, Trump also said that it is time for Hamas to disarm as specified in the peace deal. “Now we have to disarm Hamas like they promised,” Trump stated.
While Hamas officials have repeatedly rejected disarmament, a spokesman for the group said that the recovery of Gvili’s remains demonstrates the group’s commitment to the terms of the deal.
“The discovery of the body of the last Israeli captive in Gaza confirms Hamas’s commitment to all the requirements of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, including the prisoner exchange,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
Despite this statement, there is significant skepticism in Israel regarding Hamas’ willingness to disarm.
However, the disarmament of the terror organization could come as part of an amnesty deal, an anonymous U.S. official told Reuters on Monday.
“We are listening to many of their people talk about disarming. We think they’re going to. If they don’t disarm, then they’ve breached the deal. We think disarmament comes along with some sort of amnesty and candidly, we think we have a very, very good program to disarm,” the official said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm, while addressing the Knesset on Monday.
He had faced strong criticism from several ministers in the cabinet meeting where the government approved the reopening of the Rafah crossing once Gvili’s remains were found.
“The next phase is not reconstruction,” Netanyahu emphasized, speaking at a special Knesset session, “The next phase is disarming Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.” He noted that Israel wants “to advance this phase, and not to delay it.”
However, he also repeated his claim that the disarmament would occur, warning, “It will happen the easy way or the hard way. But it will happen.”
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