Dada El-Kurd

At the Munich Security Conference that was held February 13th, the top U.S.-appointed diplomat overseeing the ceasefire, Bulgarian diplomat Nikolai Mladenov,

said, quote, continued violations of the agreement pose major obstacles to the Palestinian committee expected to oversee post-war governance and reconstruction, end quote.

And he was specifically talking about Hamas basically violating the agreement by not laying down its weapons, not disarming.

And the Palestinian foreign minister, Varsan Shaheen, speaking at the same panel, focused on this idea that Gaza must not be severed from the West Bank and that the Palestinian Authority, meaning the government in the West Bank that she represents, will need to take control of governance at some point in Gaza so that Palestinians could maybe have a state in the future, something, of course, the Israeli government has rejected outright.

Which brings us to this issue of disarming Hamas.

Now, this has been a condition of the U.S.

and its representatives on the Board of Peace.

Here's Trump on this a few days after the ceasefire was announced.

On February 15th, he announced on social media, his Truth Social, that he had gotten $5 billion pledged by members of his quote-unquote Board of Peace.

As one article noted, reconstruction of Gaza is expected to cost $700 billion, according to United Nations, World Bank, and European Union estimates, especially after more than two years of war.

Trump has also claimed that countries had committed a bunch of troops to the international security force that's supposed to go into Gaza, secure Gaza, and disarm Hamas.

He didn't name which of these countries had committed troops, but Indonesia did confirm that it will send 8,000 troops.

And in that same Truth Social post, Trump again reiterated that, quote, very importantly, Hamas must uphold its commitment to full and immediate demilitarization, end quote.

So back in December, in an interview with Israel's Channel 12, as reported by Dropsite News, U.S.

Ambassador to the U.N.

Mike Waltz said that the international security force was intended to disarm Hamas one way or the other.

Specifically, he said, quote, by all means necessary.

And that, quote, obviously, it'll be a conversation with each country.

Those rules of engagement are ongoing.

I'll tell you this, President Trump has repeatedly said Hamas will disarm one way or another, the easy way or the hard way, end quote.