US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday there are "promising signs" that the Palestinian resistance group Hamas will demilitarise, noting the "entirety" of President Donald Trump's plan for besieged Gaza hinges on the action.
"I know that our partners in Egypt and Türkiye have been involved in this process. There’s been some promising signs over the weekend that we’re getting closer to an agreement with regards to them demilitarising," Rubio said during an interview with Fox News.
"But that has to happen. The entirety of this project only works if Hamas is demilitarised. Until that happens, all of it is in question," he added.
Asked if Washington would support Israel resuming its war on Gaza if Hamas does not lay down its arms, Rubio said he would not "speculate about what the president may or may not support down the road in a theoretical."
"Let’s hope we can avoid that. That’s not the outcome we want. The outcome we want is for Hamas to be demilitarised and that a Palestinian security force backed by an international security force is able to secure Gaza," he said.
Phase one first
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Anadolu last week that insisting on disarmament and bypassing the requirements of phase one of the Gaza ceasefire deal contradicts Trump’s plan for Gaza. Doing so, he said, "complicates the negotiations over phase two."
Qassem's remarks followed a meeting held over the past week in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, which brought together Hamas’s top official in Gaza, Khalil al Hayya, Egyptian officials, high representative for Gaza in the Board of Peace Nikolay Mladenov, and senior US adviser Aryeh Lightstone.
The Hamas spokesperson called for implementing the phase one obligations before moving on to any further discussions.
Last September, Trump announced a plan to end Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Phase one included a ceasefire, partial Israeli withdrawal, the release of remaining Israeli captives in the enclave, and the entry of 600 aid trucks daily.
Hamas says that while it complied with the phase one commitments by releasing Israeli captives, Israel failed to uphold its humanitarian obligations and continued its attacks, killing 786 Palestinians and injuring 2,217 others.
‘Pressure tools’
Phase two includes a broader withdrawal from Gaza of the Israeli army, which continues to occupy more than 50 percent of its area, reconstruction, and the start of the disarmament of factions.
On Israeli threats to return to fighting, Qassem called them “pressure tools” that will not succeed, saying that Israel “has not actually stopped the war” amid ongoing killings, occupation of parts of the Palestinian enclave, and restrictions on aid.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently renewed his call to fully reoccupy Gaza and establish settlements there, according to Channel 14.
