Report: US removes demand to disarm Hamas as part of ceasefire deal
White House reportedly views Israeli call to remove terror group’s fighters from Gaza as unrealistic; footage supposedly shows Hamas men shooting, beating Gazans for stealing food
Senior US officials have shifted their position in the past two days on the Israeli demand to disarm Hamas, opting to delay the issue until after a deal to end the war is reached, the Qatari newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed reported Friday.
According to the report, which cites one unnamed Egyptian official, the US believes the Israeli demand to expel all members of Hamas’s military wing from the Gaza Strip is unrealistic, due to the large number of fighters at the terror group’s disposal and the lack of willingness from other countries to accept them.
The report added that Washington does not believe Israel’s plan to use more military force to release the remaining hostages will work. Instead, the US is working toward a deal that secures the release of all 59 hostages in one batch. Hamas has offered to do this if Israel agrees to end the war permanently, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do, arguing that it leaves Hamas in power.
There has been no confirmation of the Al-Araby report.
Israel has said that it will move ahead with a large-scale military operation if no progress is made before US President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to the Middle East.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a Netanyahu confidant, was at the White House on Thursday for talks on Gaza and other issues, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday. It is unclear whether Dermer discussed hostage-ceasefire negotiations during his meetings there.
“We are in constant communication and dialogue with our counterparts and our allies and friends in Israel. Ron Dermer was here at the White House yesterday meeting with members of President Trump’s team,” Leavitt said.
She avoided confirming that Dermer met with Trump himself, but she had already done that earlier to Axios, which revealed the meeting on Thursday.
Leavitt separately reiterated that securing the release of the hostages in Gaza is a top priority for US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The meeting comes amid apparent Israeli disquiet with a series of recent moves by the Trump administration, including inking a deal to end strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and fears that Washington could agree a nuclear deal with Iran that would leave elements of their atomic program in place.
Israel’s plans for a large-scale operation in Gaza have also drawn criticism inside Israel, especially from the families of the hostages who fear that they could be killed.
Hamas has previously executed hostages as IDF troops closed in.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir addressed the issue as he met Friday with former hostages Liri Albag, Romi Gonen, Omer Shem Tov and Sasha Troufanov.
Zamir “expressed his great appreciation for the candid conversation and emphasized the IDF’s commitment to working to return all the hostages,” the military said.
“I wanted to hear from you directly about your feelings during the time when you were held hostage, and IDF troops were operating near you. The experiences you went through were difficult and you radiate strength and resilience that are worthy of appreciation,” Zamir was quoted as saying in the statement.
“The return of the hostages and their protection are before our eyes all the time, we will continue to act in every possible way to meet the goals of the war, to return all the hostages to us and to defeat the Hamas terror organization,” he added.
Zamir’s meeting with the four is part of an effort by the recently appointed military chief to meet weekly with families of hostages and former hostages.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF. Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March.
The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas and is counted among the 59 hostages.
Among the main sticking points in the hostage-ceasefire negotiations is the issue of humanitarian aid being let into Gaza.
Israel has faced growing international pressure to lift an aid blockade that it imposed in March after the collapse of a ceasefire deal. Israel has accused agencies, including the United Nations, of allowing large quantities of aid to fall into the hands of the Hamas terror group, which seizes supplies intended for civilians for its own forces.
Hamas’s conduct was demonstrated in footage from the Gaza Strip that circulated on social media on Friday, showing armed men shooting and beating bound individuals.
Another horrific video from Gaza shows Hamas militias torturing a man—stomping on his face, beating him, and shooting him—under the usual accusation of “theft.” pic.twitter.com/aTJdRFPwRl
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 9, 2025
Users claimed that the men in the clip are Hamas members targeting those suspected of stealing food.
A Palestinian website recently reported that Hamas has reestablished a unit that previously operated in Gaza to enforce order, in light of increasing theft due to the food shortage in the Strip.
The Times of Israel Community.