The US president, whose 20-point peace plan requires the militant group to disarm, made the comments as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida for talks on Monday. During a press conference with Netanyahu after their meeting, Trump said Israel had "lived up to the plan 100%", despite continuing attacks by its military in Gaza. The US president also said his country could support another major strike on Iran were it to resume rebuilding its ballistic missile or nuclear weapons programmes.

In response to Trump's threat, Iran's supreme leader's top political adviser, Ali Shamkhani, said on X that any aggression towards Iran would be met with an "immediate harsh response". Asked how quickly Hamas and Israel should move to phase two of the peace plan, Trump said: "As quickly as we can. But there has to be disarmament." Speaking about Hamas, he said: "If they don't disarm as, as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, and then there will be hell to pay for them. "They have to disarm in a fairly short period of time". Trump also said reconstruction in Gaza could "begin pretty soon". The Gaza peace plan came into effect in October. Under the second phase, a technocratic government would be established in the devastated territory, Hamas would disarm and Israeli troops would withdraw. The reconstruction of Gaza would then begin. But critics have suggested Netanyahu could seek to delay the process of the plan and instead push for Hamas to disarm before Israeli troops withdraw. The Israeli prime minister has been accused of not wanting to engage seriously with the issue of a political future for Palestinians. Hamas officials have said a full disarmament should take place alongside progress towards an independent Palestinian state. Asked if he was concerned Israel was not moving fast enough to phase two of the plan, Trump said it had "lived up to the plan". "I'm not concerned about anything that Israel's doing, I'm concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren't doing," he added. (BBC)