For anyone serious about peace in Gaza, the latest maneuvering by Qatar and Turkey is infuriating. At the moment when the cease-fire agreement is supposed to shift into its decisive second phase — the moment when Hamas must finally begin giving up the weapons it has used to terrorize both Israelis and Palestinians — two of Washington’s supposed partners are scrambling to shield the group from the one requirement that actually matters.
This shouldn’t test the Trump administration’s resolve. It should be a moral and strategic no-brainer: Hamas cannot remain armed or empowered in any way that allows it to intimidate Gaza’s population again. Yet Doha and Ankara, longtime patrons of the group, are proposing an array of evasions: “temporary storage,” “international supervision,” and even a multiyear “grace period” during which Hamas would legally retain its arsenal. The euphemisms are absurd; the intent is unmistakable.
Israel has, understandably, flatly refused. It knows precisely what happens when Hamas is given time and space: it uses both to rebuild and terrorize. Israeli officials have made clear they will not approve any arrangement that lets Hamas keep so much as a bullet — nor should they have to repeat themselves.
Qatar and Turkey are not confused mediators. They are knowingly trying to preserve the relevance of a client they have nurtured for years. Disarmament is the hinge on which Gaza’s future turns, and they understand that stripping Hamas of its weapons would also strip it of its political authority. Preserving the arsenal — even in a warehouse under some international fig leaf — preserves the leverage. That is the point.
Meanwhile, Hamas is proving exactly why disarmament cannot be delayed. Since the cease-fire began, it has launched a violent campaign to tighten its grip on the part of Gaza still under its control: beatings, detention sweeps, public executions, ultimatums demanding surrender from rival militants. These are not the actions of a movement preparing to enter civilian politics. They are the actions of a regime preparing for its next round of coercion.
The proposals coming from Doha and Ankara would legitimize this behavior while pretending to constrain it. They would gut Phase 2 of the peace plan — the establishment of a technocratic interim authority and deployment of an international stabilization force — before it even begins. A “stored” or “frozen” arsenal is still an arsenal. A disarmed Hamas is one thing; a Hamas simply waiting out the clock is another. Gaza would remain trapped in the same cycle of fear and repression that brought it to disaster.
The Trump administration cannot allow this farce to stand. Washington has real leverage with Qatar and Turkey — diplomatic, financial and strategic — and it must use it. Not to finesse, not to soothe, but to insist on the only condition that can give Gaza a future: Hamas must fully disarm, immediately and irreversibly. No carve-outs. No creative workarounds. No grace period during which the people of Gaza remain under the shadow of men with guns.
If the administration wants this peace plan to mean something, it must stop its friends in Doha and Ankara from protecting Hamas and start insisting they support Gaza’s reconstruction on honest terms. The people of Gaza deserve a chance at stability. That chance disappears the moment Hamas is allowed to keep its weapons.
