Trump threatens Hamas over disarmament as hostage deal hits snag

Magdalena Del Valle, Bloomberg News on Oct 14, 2025

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U.S. President Donald Trump demanded that Hamas return the bodies of deceased hostages and threatened the militant group with retaliation if it does not lay down its arms.

Trump’s comments Tuesday came after Israel prepared to limit the aid it lets into Gaza, developments that threatened the fragile U.S.-led ceasefire that the president celebrated in the region just one day earlier.

“If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. They know I’m not playing games,” Trump told reporters at the White House during a meeting with Argentina’s president.

Asked by a reporter how the U.S. would take away Hamas’ weapons, Trump replied “I don’t have to explain that to you.” The president said disarmament would have to occur within “a reasonable period of time,” without specifying further.

The U.N. confirmed that the Israeli military agency responsible for coordinating government policies in the Palestinian territories announced in a letter that it would be cutting by half the amount of aid flowing into Gaza given Hamas has yet to return all the bodies of the deceased hostages — a key part of the deal that took effect last week.

“We have received this communication from the Israeli authorities,” Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, told reporters on Tuesday, without addressing the magnitude of the drop in aid. “We certainly very much hope that the bodies of the hostages are handed over and that the ceasefire continues to be implemented.”

Border crossings into Gaza were also closed on Tuesday, Cherevko said, but U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq was unable to confirm if this was linked to the Israeli announcement, which came from the Israeli agency called Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT.

The Israeli mission to the U.N. didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Israeli move is testing the U.S.-brokered peace deal between Israel and Hamas only days after the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10.

On Monday morning, Hamas freed all 20 remaining living Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip, but so far has only returned the bodies of four deceased hostages.

Meanwhile, the U.N. has been ramping up its aid deliveries into Gaza since the ceasefire, securing Israeli approval for 190,000 metric tons of aid, including food, shelter items, medicine and other supplies.

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—With assistance from Catherine Lucey, Gregory White and Derek Wallbank.