US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Hamas has told his top aides that it will disarm, and that the terror group could be dealt with “violently” if it refuses to do so. He also pressed the Palestinian terror group to follow through with its release of all the dead hostages still being held in the Strip.
“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 told reporters at the White House.
He later clarified that this message, rather than in a direct conversation between the president and Hamas officials, was passed along via his “people,” apparently referring to US special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Witkoff and Kushner, with Trump’s approval, met last week 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.
The US-brokered ceasefire went into effect on Friday, and Hamas released the remaining 20 hostages believed to be alive on Monday, as per the terms of the deal. The terror group was also required to return the remains of all deceased hostages, but only handed over four on Monday. The terms of the deal gave Hamas some leeway in this regard, however.
Trump made the comments on Tuesday in response to a question on whether he can guarantee that Hamas will disarm.
“We have told them we want them to 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 said. “Do you understand me?… They will disarm.”
A masked member of the Hamas military wing stands guard next to children in the south of Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on October 13, 2025. (Bashar TALEB / AFP)
Pressed on how he planned to go about doing that, Trump said, “I don’t have to explain that to you… They know I’m not playing games.” As for a timeline, Trump said this will happen within “a reasonable period of time.”
Asked whether Hamas is holding up its end of the ceasefire-hostage deal with Israel, the US president told reporters, “We’ll find out.”
He made that comment shortly after posting on his Truth Social account that the “job is not done” when it comes to the deal, since the remaining deceased hostages have not been returned as promised.
“ALL TWENTY HOSTAGES ARE BACK AND FEELING AS GOOD AS CAN BE EXPECTED. A big burden has been lifted, but the job IS NOT DONE. THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED!” Trump wrote online.
Hamas released the bodies of four hostages on Monday and another four bodies on Tuesday evening, which it said were captives, but whose identities were not yet determined.
The deal’s Monday deadline applies to the bodies as well, but the text of the agreement appears to recognize that Hamas may need more time to locate all of them, setting up a joint task force of the various stakeholders to assist in finding all bodies not returned within 72 hours, while requiring Hamas to “exert maximum effort to ensure the fulfillment of these conditions as soon as possible.”
IDF troops salute over the caskets containing the bodies of slain hostages Guy Illouz, Bipin Joshi, Yossi Sharabi and Cpt. Daniel Perez in the Gaza Strip, late October 13, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
“Phase two begins right NOW!!!” Trump added in his Truth Social post.
He was ostensibly referring to the parts of his 20-point plan that focus on the post-war management and reconstruction of Gaza led by a transitional government of Palestinian technocrats and overseen by a Board of Peace that will be chaired by Trump and include former UK prime minister Tony Blair and other prominent international figures.
However, the document signed by the sides in Sharm el-Sheikh last week only included the points of the Trump plan regarding Israel’s initial pull-back from Gaza and the hostage-prisoner swap, which the US has referred to as phase one.
Hamas has yet to get on board with phase two, which would require it to disarm, and has said it wants to hold subsequent negotiations on the matter.
Trump also revealed to reporters in the White House on Tuesday that Hamas misrepresented the number of bodies it told mediators it would be able to produce of the 28 that remained in Gaza before the deal was signed.
“We were told they had 26, 24 dead hostages… and it seems as though they don’t have that because we’re talking about a much lesser number,” Trump said.
“I want them back,” Trump reiterated to reporters in the White House during a meeting with visiting Argentine President Javier Milei.
US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 14, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
Commenting on Hamas’s killings, including public executions, of dozens of “collaborators” since the ceasefire took place, Trump appeared to justify the effort.
“They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad… and they killed a number of gang members,” Trump said.
“That didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s okay. It’s a couple of very bad gangs. It’s no different than other countries like Venezuela [that] sent their gangs into us,” he added.
Trump said on Sunday that he had given Hamas “approval for a period of time” to police “problems” in Gaza.
Reporter to Trump: “Hamas is rearming itself as a police force, shooting rivals. What’s the message to Hamas?
Trump: “Because they want to stop the problems … And we gave them an approval for a period of time…”pic.twitter.com/sKmF2hTmj5
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) October 13, 2025
Hamas has killed at least 33 people since a ceasefire took effect on Friday in a crackdown on groups that have tested its grip, sources in the strip said Monday.
Palestinians accused of collaberation with Israel are seen blindfolded moments before their execution by Hamas gunmen in a Gaza street, October 13, 2025 (Screenshot: X)
In a stark assertion of the group’s return, fighters executed several men they accused of collaborating with Israeli forces. In one video circulated late on Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men into a circle of people in Gaza City, forced them to their knees, and shot them from behind. A Hamas source confirmed the authenticity of the video.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
