If Hamas does not disarm soon, the terrorist group will be “blown away very quickly,” US President Donald Trump declared in a wide ranging speech on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We have peace in the Middle East,” he claimed.
“There are some little situations like Hamas, and Hamas has agreed to give up their weapons,” he asserted, though the Palestinian terror organization has publicly stated it will not disarm.
“They were born with a weapon in their hand, so it’s not easy to do,” Trump said.
“That’s what they’ve agreed to, they’re going to do it,” the American leader promised. “And we’re going to know over the next two-three days, certainly the next three weeks, whether or not they’re going to do it.”
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“If they don’t do it, they’ll be blown away very quickly,” he warned.
Trump reiterated his claim that many of the “59 countries” interested in participating in the yet-to-be-established International Stabilization Force in Gaza “want to come in and take out Hamas. They want to do whatever they can.”
.@POTUS: “I think we have peace in the Middle East. There are some little situations like Hamas… we’re going to know over the next 2 or 3 days, certainly over the next 3 weeks, whether or not they’re going to [disarm]. If they don’t do it, they’ll be blown away very quickly.” pic.twitter.com/W8Ofwwj018
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 21, 2026
“If they don’t get rid of the guns, they’ll be very unhappy people. [They’re] going to have no choice. They will be eliminated,” Trump reiterated in remarks to reporters at the beginning of his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Davos.
The US had struggled to convince countries to contribute troops to the peacekeeping force, amid heavy speculation that Hamas will disarm and that the IDF will withdraw further from Gaza. One of the two countries Washington had publicly touted, Azerbaijan, announced earlier this month that it would not be participating.
US officials briefing reporters last week insisted that they now have enough countries offering troops and that an announcement can be expected in about two weeks.
Moreover, one of the briefers appeared to confirm The Times of Israel’s reporting on the shrinking of the ISF mandate to more limited tasks such as securing borders and humanitarian aid, rather than kinetic activity to disarm Hamas.
Hamas gunmen search for the remains of Israeli hostage Ran Gvili in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, January 7, 2026. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Under Trump’s Gaza peace plan, the first phase of which was signed into force in October, the ISF is tasked with providing security for the Strip, while gradually phasing out the IDF, which currently remains in control of 53% of the enclave.
The ISF is supposed to come into force with the second phase of Trump’s plan, though US special envoy Steve Witkoff last week announced that phase two had begun, saying that the situation would be “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance and reconstruction.” However, in his announcement of phase two, Witkoff made no mention of the ISF, though the White House later said the force will be headed by Central Command Special Operations Commander Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers.
Meanwhile, amid tensions between Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the makeup of some of the various boards and committees that the US has announced for Gaza, the premier is looking to travel to Washington, DC, in February in order to meet Trump and participate in an AIPAC event, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, January 19, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Netanyahu has criticized Washington’s decision to place senior representatives from Turkey and Qatar on the Board of Peace’s operational arm for Gaza, called the Gaza Executive Board, and has vowed that Turkish and Qatari forces would not set foot in Gaza, and that neither will “have any authority or any influence” in the various bodies that will govern the Strip.
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the reported potential US trip. The premier last visited the US in late December, spending New Years Eve at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, in his fifth US visit since Trump returned to power last year.
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