Netanyahu: Hamas disarmament key obstacle to advancing Gaza peace in 2026

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Tuesday that progress toward the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire hinges on Hamas disarming, calling the terrorist group’s refusal to give up its weapons the central obstacle to stabilizing the territory in 2026.

“A new government in Gaza is possible if you disarm Hamas, because no one’s going to come in there if Hamas stays armed,” Netanyahu told the TV network’s chief political anchor, Bret Baier. “They’ll put a bullet right through the back of their head, you know, anyone of any potential new government.”

Netanyahu stressed that the next phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which envisions Gaza’s full demilitarization and the deployment of an International Stabilization Force, has stalled because of Hamas.

The prime minister told Baier that he believed a different future for Gaza was still possible in the year ahead “if we disarm Hamas, whether with an international force or by any other means.” He added, “If it can be done the easy way, fine. And if not, it’ll be done another way.”

The Palestinian terror organization that murdered some 1,200 people, primarily Jewish civilians, in its Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border assault still has around 20,000 operatives and 60,000 rifles, Netanyahu revealed.

“That’s what disarmament means—got to take all these rifles, take them away from them, and break up those terror tunnels that they have, still hundreds of kilometers of terror tunnels,” the premier told Baier.

According to Netanyahu, Hamas uses its weapons not only against the Jewish state but also to intimidate and kill Palestinians who oppose the continuation of its rule in Gaza. As long as Hamas remains armed, he emphasized, no alternative civilian body would be able to operate.

Netanyahu dismissed reports suggesting friction with the United States over the pace of negotiations or Israel’s actions since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10, saying he and Trump share the same view on Hamas.

“He just cut right to the chase,” Netanyahu said of his Monday meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., adding that the U.S. president understands that “these terrorists try to kill us.”

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Dec. 6 repeated calls for Israel’s destruction, rejecting U.S.- and U.N.-backed demands to disarm the Iranian-supported terrorist group and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.

“The resistance and its weapons are the honor and pride of the ummah [the Islamic nation],” Mashaal told an anti-Israel summit in Turkey. “A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron.”

Mashaal, in his taped speech, also dismissed “all forms of guardianship, mandate and re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and all of Palestine,” rejecting another key part of Trump’s plan for Gaza, which received unanimous support of the U.N. Security Council on Nov. 17.

Netanyahu told Fox News on Tuesday that “the point here is not to negotiate with Hamas,” adding: “their job is to vanish.” The prime minister noted that Gazans “want this more than anyone else.”

Addressing the situation in Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu rejected the “false symmetry” between the thousands of Palestinian terror attacks and rare “vigilantism” by 70 Jewish teenagers “from broken homes.”

However, Netanyahu said, “even if it’s not symmetrical, I want peaceful coexistence between the Israelis and the Palestinians who live in Judea and Samaria, which is part of our ancestral homeland.” He added, “We also want to build a lot of infrastructure there—both for us and for our Palestinian neighbors. And I think there’s a lot of room to talk about it.”

Asked about broader regional threats, Netanyahu said Iran is attempting to rebuild its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities following the 12-day war with Jerusalem in June, warning Tehran against escalation.

Netanyahu said that while the threat posed by the Islamic Republic has been set back significantly, it was “trying” to explore other nuclear sites and “recover their ballistic missile production facility.” He said Iran should abandon all enrichment and submit itself to inspections.

Netanyahu said the shifting regional balance has also created new diplomatic opportunities, including the possible expansion of the Abraham Accords normalization deals with Islamic countries.

“People are open to peace agreements,” he said, citing the weakening of terror groups backed by Iran and Jerusalem’s military and technological growth. Netanyahu said he hopes future normalization could include Saudi Arabia and Muslim-majority nations beyond the Middle East.

Netanyahu told Fox News that the main takeaway from the seven-front War of Redemption sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre was the strength of the alliance between Israel and the United States.

“Israel emerged from the seven-front war that was foisted on us as the most powerful country in the Middle East,” he told Baier. “But part of that is this tremendous alliance that we have with the United States under President Trump.”

“It’s just a partnership of like-minded peoples and leaders, and I am very grateful to President Trump for that support that he gives us.”

Netanyahu arrived at Mar-a-Lago on Monday for his sixth meeting with Trump since the latter returned to office 11 months ago.

The agenda of Netanyahu’s meetings with the president and other officials in the United States this week centered on advancing the Gaza ceasefire, countering Iran’s nuclear and missile ambitions and advancing regional normalization talks with Arab states.

©JNS