Following the return to Israel on Monday of the final slain hostage, Ran Gvili, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
both said in separate statements that the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
ceasefire’s next challenge would be the disarmament of Hamas
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...Hamas’s disarmament, meant to take place under the second stage of the truce, is broadly seen as one of the most difficult pieces of the plan for postwar Gaza laid out by Trump last year. But on Monday, both leaders drew a comparison between the quest to bring back all of the hostages, which was once seen as improbable, and the effort to disarm Hamas.
There is widespread skepticism in Israel that Hamas will agree to give up its weapons. The terror group has previously rejected the idea.
"The next phase [in Gaza] is not reconstruction," Netanyahu said, speaking at a special Knesset session honoring Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. "The next phase is disarming Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip."
He added that it was in Israel’s interest "to advance this phase, and not to delay it." Then, repeating a warning he has made before, the prime minister said, "It will happen the easy way or the hard way. But it will happen."
Later, speaking to a gaggle of news hounds in a Knesset corridor, he chastised the media for its negativity on the next phase, and said there had also been doubts that Israel could return all of the hostages.
"Always doubting, always scolding," he said of the press, telling the news hounds to have "a little faith. We mean it. We have other missions: to disarm Hamas, to demilitarize Gaza... I have a plan, we have missions, and we are executing them."
The disarmament issue is being spotlighted now, as the return of Gvili’s body after 843 days marks the end of the first phase of the ceasefire. The Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt is due to open later this week, another key part of the first phase.
Trump inaugurated the ceasefire’s second phase last week at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland
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, and has launched several bodies meant to govern the postwar Strip. He has expressed confidence that Hamas will disarm as part of that process, while simultaneously threatening the terror group if it does not do so.
On Monday, he praised Hamas for enabling the return of Gvili, while repeating that it must lay down its weapons.
"They worked very hard to get the body back," Trump said of Hamas in an interview with Axios, adding, "They were working with Israel on it."
"Now we have to disarm Hamas like they promised," Trump continued.
In his Axios interview, Trump noted as well that there had been skepticism that all hostages would be returned under the plan’s first phase, but that outcome proved possible.
"Nobody believed we would bring back all the hostages. It was a great moment," Trump said, adding that his top advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner briefed him about the recovery this morning, before Trump spoke to Netanyahu, who "was thrilled" about the development.
Last week, presenting a plan to rebuild Gaza as, in part, an upscale resort destination, Kushner linked the war-torn enclave’s reconstruction to Hamas laying down its arms, saying, "Without that, we can’t rebuild."
"If Hamas does not demilitarize, that will be what holds back Gaza and the people of Gaza from achieving their aspiration," he said at the signing ceremony for the Board of Peace, which will oversee the bodies running postwar Gaza.
The Middle Eastern countries mediating the Gaza ceasefire have also pushed Hamas to disarm.
But the terror group has vowed to hold onto its weapons, and sources familiar with the negotiations have told The Times of Israel that the mediators are pushing for a gradual handover of the group’s weapons — a framework Israel opposes.
Ottoman Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met on Monday with a Hamas delegation headed by bigwig Khalil al-Hayya in Ankara amid efforts by the mediators to advance disarmament, as well as the demilitarization of the Strip.
The Ottoman Turkish foreign ministry posted pictures from the meeting, but did not provide additional information about it.
US official: Amnesty for those in Gaza who disarm
[IsraelTimes] The US official reiterated the Trump administration’s stance that Gazan operatives who agree to give up their weapons will be granted amnesty.
“We think disarmament comes along with some sort of amnesty, and candidly, we think we have a very good program to disarm. We’re in contact, or people representing us are in contact, with [Hamas], and we expect it to happen,” the US official said.
The amnesty-for-weapons offer to Hamas fighters was laid out in a 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war unveiled by Trump’s administration in September. It was welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose coalition partners criticized elements of the proposal that spoke of the creation of a pathway for a Palestinian state. For their part, Hamas officials have rejected the parts of the plan that call for the terror group to disarm.
The ceasefire deal Israel and Hamas actually signed only focused on the first phase of the agreement, which covered a hostage-prisoner swap, Israel’s initial pullback from the Strip and humanitarian aid provisions.
But the US official briefing reporters insisted that Hamas had agreed to a proposal that included the terrorist organization giving up its weapons.
“They signed an agreement… If they decide to play games, then obviously President Trump will take other actions,” the US official said.
Hamas has vowed to hold onto its weapons, and officials familiar with the negotiations have told The Times of Israel that the mediators are pushing for a gradual handover of its arms — a framework Israel opposes.
The US official said Washington is working on a disarmament program with Israel and the other Gaza ceasefire mediators, and that announcements on the matter will hopefully be made in the coming weeks.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met earlier Monday with a Hamas delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya in Ankara in a sit-down ostensibly aimed at advancing the decommissioning of Hamas’s weapons.
US OFFICIAL: BOARD OF PEACE WILL FIRST FOCUS ON GAZA
The US official said that more than 25 countries have agreed to join the Board of Peace. Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed “20 additional countries” had agreed to join Trump’s board, seemingly suggesting that this new group was on top of the roughly 20 that had already agreed to join last week.
A Times of Israel tally of official announcements from countries confirming decisions to join the Board of Peace stands at 26, including the United States itself. The other countries that have agreed to join are Argentina, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Morocco, Mongolia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
Nearly a dozen countries have indicated rejection or explicitly rejected invites to join the Board of Peace, including France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Ukraine
Others have yet to respond to the invitation, including China, Croatia, Cyprus, India, the European Union, Russia and Singapore. The US has said some countries need to receive parliamentary approval before joining.
Asked about the scope of the Board of Peace, the US official briefing reporters said the first focus of the panel will be Gaza.
While the UN Security Council gave the Board of Peace a two-year mandate to oversee the postwar management of Gaza, the Trump-led body’s charter makes no mention of the Strip and indicates a desire to usurp the UN in global conflict resolution.
US says disarmament program will offer funds in exchange for Hamas ceding its guns
[IsraelTimes] The US ambassador to the UN says that Hamas will be urged to cede its weapons via an international buy-back program, providing new details regarding the program Washington plans to advance to strip the terror group of its weapons.
“Independent international monitors will supervise a process of demilitarization of Gaza to include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning, and supported by an internationally-funded buy-back and reintegration program,” US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz says in remarks to the Security Council.
The remarks confirmed The Times of Israel’s reporting from recent months about plans to institute a “buy-back” program where participants would be given funds or jobs if they agree to hand over their weapons. It is part of a broader decommissioning initiative that the Gaza ceasefire mediators are pushing that would see Hamas gradually hand over its arms, starting with its heavy weaponry.
Israel is unlikely to accept this gradual process that prioritizes heavy weaponry over light weaponry, given that the latter category has also been used by Hamas to maintain its grip on Gaza.
A US official briefing reporters last week also said that the disarmament program would offer amnesty to Hamas fighters who cooperate with it..
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon says during the Security Council session that Hamas still holds thousands of rockets, anti-tank missiles and some 60,000 assault rifles.