US President Donald Trump affirmed that Hamas must disarm as part of Phase II of the ceasefire in Gaza in an interview with Israeli Axios reporter Barak Ravid on Monday.
"Now we need to disarm Hamas, as they promised," Trump emphasized.
Trump praised the terror group for working "very hard" to return the remains of St.-Sgt.-Maj. Ran Gvili, whose remains were located and returned to Israel earlier on Monday.
"They worked very hard to get the body back. They were working with Israel on it. You can imagine how hard it was," he said, describing the search.
The identification process and search for Gvili's remains were "very difficult," he noted.
He also clarified that he was informed by his administration's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner that Gvili's remains had been located, before speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was "thrilled."
"This is bigger than people realize. Apart from the Gvili family and people in Israel, no one believed that we would bring back all the hostages. It was a big moment. Please tell the parents that I am very happy," he added.
Hamas disarmament may be met with amnesty
A US official speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity stated that disarmament by Hamas terrorists in Gaza may come along with some sort of amnesty for the Palestinian terror group.
"We are listening to many of their people talk about disarming. We think they're going to. If they don't disarm, then they've breached the deal. We think disarmament comes along with some sort of amnesty and candidly, we think we have a very, very good program to disarm," the official said.
The Israeli embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters question on whether Israel would agree to amnesty for Hamas terrorists if they gave up their weapons.