by Emmitt Barry, with reporting from Worthy News Jerusalem Bureau Staff
(Worthy News) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hamas must surrender its weapons or face dire consequences, saying that if the terror group refuses to disarm, “all hell breaks loose.” His comments came Tuesday in an interview with CBS, amid efforts to implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire and reconstruction plan for Gaza.
Netanyahu said Israel was “giving peace a chance” under Trump’s 20-point agreement, which requires both the demilitarization and disarmament of Hamas. “Hamas has to give up its arms,” Netanyahu said. “And second, you want to make sure there are no weapons factories or smuggling into Gaza. That’s demilitarization. We agreed that’s part of the plan.”
The prime minister stressed that Israel would give the process a peaceful opportunity to succeed but warned that force remained an option. “Let’s give a chance to do the second part peacefully, which is my hope. But if not … I think I heard the president speak tonight. He said, ‘They better do it, or all hell breaks loose.'”
Netanyahu added that Israel must remain vigilant: “Freedom is not permanent, nor is it automatic. If you cannot defend free societies, they will be overtaken by authoritarian or totalitarian regimes.”
Trump echoed Netanyahu’s warning from Washington, declaring that Hamas must comply with its pledge to disarm or face immediate consequences. “We have told them we want them to disarm, and they will disarm,” Trump told reporters. “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, agreed to by both Israel and Hamas, led to last week’s ceasefire and the release of all living hostages held in Gaza for two years. The terror group, however, has faced criticism for returning only a fraction of the 28 bodies of deceased hostages it had promised to deliver.
“We were told they had 26, 24 dead hostages … and it seems as though they don’t have that because we’re talking about a much lesser number,” Trump said Tuesday. He accused Hamas of misrepresenting the number of bodies it held and confirmed that a joint U.S.-Israeli-Arab task force was working to locate the remaining remains.
The U.S. president also confirmed reports that Hamas had begun enforcing its rule again in Gaza, including the execution of suspected collaborators. “They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad,” Trump remarked, saying the actions did not trouble him “much.”
Netanyahu said Israel remains committed to achieving lasting peace through strength, invoking the precedent of the 2020 Abraham Accords. “I made peace with four Arab states with President Trump when everybody said it’s not going to happen,” he said. “Following the chain of victories, I hope we’ll soon see a very peaceful region.”
The war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel–killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251–expanded into conflicts with Hezbollah in Lebanon and later Iran. With all living hostages now home and the guns mostly silent, Trump’s peace deal faces its first real test: whether Hamas will truly disarm.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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