President Donald Trump, during a 12-hour whirlwind in the Middle East on Monday, celebrated a “new dawn” for the region as he began the first phase of a ceasefire deal he helped broker between Israel and Hamas.
But upon returning to Washington, Trump faced difficult questions about what comes next.
A key issue in ensuring lasting peace is the disarmament of Hamas, as called for in Trump’s 20-point peace plan but was not explicitly addressed in the initial phase of the agreement.
ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers asked Trump at the White House on Tuesday how long it would take Hamas to do so and whether he could guarantee it would happen.
“Well, they’re leaving disarm, and because they said they were going to disarm. And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, in the Cabinet Room of the White House, October 14, 2025 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
“How are you going to do that?” ABC’s Travers asked.
“I don’t have to explain it to you, but if you don’t disarm, we will disarm you. You know I’m not playing, okay… And if you don’t disarm, we will disarm you, and it will happen quickly and maybe violently. But you will disarm. Do you understand me?” Trump said.
When asked what the deadline is for Hamas to disarm, Trump responded “pretty quickly.”
“A reasonable period of time,” Trump said.
Hamas gunmen in pickup trucks escort buses carrying freed Palestinian prisoners as they are received following their release from Israeli prisons under a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 13, 2025.
Jehad Alshrafi/AP
The president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on the way home overnight, said his focus was now on rebuilding Gaza, which has been demolished by two years of war. The United Nations now says rebuilding the enclave could cost more than $70 billion.
But Trump did not elaborate on a specific vision, instead saying thornier issues such as creating a Palestinian state and governing the Gaza Strip would be resolved later.
“Well, we’ll have to see,” Trump said on the flight. “I mean, a lot of people like the one-state solution. Some people like the two-state solutions. We’ll have to see.”
On how to close that gap, the president said that at some point he would decide “what I think is right” in coordination with other countries.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One in Mildenhall, Suffolk, October 14, 2025.
Saúl Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Asked to comment further on the second phase of his peace plan and the state of negotiations, Trump said only that there was “a lot of power” in the group of world leaders who met in Egypt on Monday to discuss the future of Gaza.
“Those are, you know, really rich countries and they can handle it,” Trump said.
Trump was surrounded by leaders and representatives from more than 20 countries in Sharm El-Sheikh, where he and three mediators involved in negotiations between Israel and Hamas signed a document supporting their peace plan.
Trump touted the memo as “historic,” but it appeared largely symbolic, containing no specific details about what comes next other than broad commitments by the United States, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar to “pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security and shared prosperity in the region, based on the principles of mutual respect and shared destiny.”
Israel and Hamas were not present in Egypt nor did they sign the document.
President Donald Trump hopes to greet leaders during a summit to support ending the more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza after a decisive ceasefire agreement, October 13, 2025, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
Evan Vucci/AP
Emotional scenes unfolded in Israel and Gaza on Monday as the 20 Israeli hostages still alive were reunited with their families and Palestinian prisoners were freed and returned to Gaza, a major diplomatic achievement for Trump after months of tense negotiations.
Although in a sign of the fragility of the ceasefire agreement, Israel on Monday accused Hamas of a “flagrant violation” when it did not immediately return all the remains of four deceased hostages. The UN then said that Israeli authorities had announced that, in response, they would halve the number of trucks authorized to transport aid to Gaza.
Asked Tuesday at the White House whether the deal with Hamas would delay his side of the deal, President Trump responded: “We’ll find out.”
Trump later said Hamas “misrepresented” the number of hostages killed, calling it a “very difficult issue.”
“I want them back. That’s what they said. “I want them back,” he said of the bodies of the deceased hostages.
