Trump says Hamas assured his ‘people’ that it will disarm: ‘And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, perhaps violently’

US President Donald Trump says Hamas has told his top aides that it will disarm, and that the terror group could be dealt with “violently” if it refuses do so.

“I spoke to Hamas, and I said, ‘You’re going to disarm, right?’ ‘Yes, sir. We’re going to disarm.’ — That’s what they told me. They will disarm or we will disarm them,” Trump tells reporters at the White House.

He later clarifies that this message, rather than in a direct conversation between the president and Hamas, was passed along to his “people,” apparently referring to US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Witkoff and Kushner, with Trump’s approval, met on Wednesday in Sharm el-Sheikh with Hamas’s top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya to assure him that Washington would hold Israel accountable to the terms of the US plan for ending the war in Gaza, according to an Arab official, who confirmed an Axios report to The Times of Israel.

Trump makes the comments in response to a question on whether he can guarantee that Hamas will disarm.

“We have told them we want disarm, and they will disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently, but they will disarm,” he says. “Do you understand me? … They will disarm.”

Pressed on how he plans to go about doing that, Trump says, “I don’t have to explain that to you… They know I’m not playing games.”

As for a timeline, Trump says this will happen within “a reasonable period of time.”