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And Trump is in on it:

On Hamas disarmament, Trump says: ‘If they don’t do it, we’ll do it’

The US president says his administration wants the Palestinian group to hand over its weapons, adding Hamas has “agreed to do it”.

“Now they have to do it. And if they don’t do it, we’ll do it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump also appeared to acknowledge that the return of Israeli captives’ bodies will be difficult, saying it’s a “gruesome process”, but Hamas is “looking for” the remains.

“They’re digging. They’re actually digging. There are areas where they’re digging and they’re finding a lot of bodies, and then they have to separate the bodies,” Trump said, adding some corpses are buried under rubble.


Israeli defence minister orders military to devise ‘comprehensive plan’ to defeat Hamas

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has instructed the Israeli military to draw up a “comprehensive plan” to completely defeat Hamas in the Gaza Strip should the truce collapse.

The directive came during a meeting with senior military leaders, including Israeli military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir.

According to The Times of Israel, citing Katz’s office, he instructed “the preparation of a plan for the complete defeat of Hamas in Gaza if it refuses to implement President Trump’s plan, and it becomes necessary to resume fighting”.

“If Hamas refuses to implement the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the US, will return to fighting and act to achieve the complete defeat of Hamas, change the reality in Gaza, and attain all the objectives of the war,” Katz’s office added.


Israel tells US it won’t move to next truce phase without captives’ bodies: Report

Israel has told the Trump administration the next phase of the ceasefire with Hamas cannot be entered into until all of the captives’ remains are returned, a news report says.

“Israeli officials acknowledge that a small number of the bodies will be hard to locate, but claim between 15 and 20 could be quickly returned,” US news outlet Axios reported.

The truce deal said 28 bodies are to be returned, but so far only nine have been brought back to Israel.

Hamas and the Red Cross have said it’s a difficult task to locate and remove the bodies of those kidnapped to Gaza because of the vast destruction inflicted by Israel’s military over the past two years.

“Both Israeli and US officials close to the process are concerned that elements within the Netanyahu government – particularly ultranationalist ministers Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir – will use the issue of hostage remains to undermine the deal [which they oppose] and push for the resumption of the war,” the news report said.