Trump said during an interview with the American website Axios: "Hamas helped Israel locate the remains of the last Israeli hostage and made great efforts to recover him."
In praising Hamas's assistance in the search efforts, Trump stated that "the process of finding and identifying the body was extremely difficult, as the search teams had to examine hundreds of bodies in the area (...) It was a difficult scene."
Trump also called on the Palestinian movement to disarm, in line with his ceasefire plan.
Trump's interview came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan was not aimed at rebuilding the sector, but rather focused on disarming it and stripping Hamas of its weapons.
In a speech before the Knesset (Israeli parliament), Netanyahu claimed that the disarmament of Gaza would happen "the easy way or the hard way," referring to the continuation of military pressure, citing statements by US President Donald Trump.
The second phase of Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza calls for the disarmament of Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian factions, the implementation of a further withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from Gaza, and the start of reconstruction efforts, which the United Nations estimates will cost about $70 billion.
Trump had announced in mid-January the start of this phase, as part of his plan approved by UN Security Council Resolution 2803 issued on November 17, 2025.
The first phase, which came into effect in October 2025, included a ceasefire and an exchange of Israeli prisoners for Palestinian prisoners, while Tel Aviv continues to violate the agreement daily, resulting in the martyrdom of 477 Palestinians.
The agreement ended a two-year Israeli war of extermination, supported by the United States, which left more than 71,000 martyrs and more than 171,000 wounded Palestinians, most of them children and women, in addition to widespread destruction affecting about 90 percent of the civilian infrastructure.
