US President Donald Trump said there will be "hell to pay" if Palestinian militant organization Hamas does not disarm soon.
A fragile ceasefire has held in the Gaza Strip since October 10, after Israel and Hamas agreed to a 20-point, Washington-backed roadmap to end more than two years of fighting.
But implementing the plan's second phase, under which Hamas is to lay down its arms and an international stabilization force is to be deployed, is expected to be much more complicated. Hamas has so far rejected all calls to disarm.
Speaking at a joint press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Trump said the US was not seeking an escalation in the conflict.
"We talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament, and they're going to be given a very short period of time to disarm, and we'll see how that works out," he said.
"If they don't disarm as as they agreed to do, they agreed to it and then there'll be hell to pay for them, and we don't want that. We're not looking for that, but they have to disarm within a fairly short period of time."
Trump warned that non-compliance would be "terrible" for Hamas. He added that other countries "will go in and wipe them out," should Hamas fail to lay down its arms.
The war triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 in which some 1,200 people in Israel were killed and 250 abducted.
The Gaza health authorities, controlled by Hamas, say at least 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since then.
As part of the ceasefire deal, Hamas agreed to release all hostages abducted during the October 7 attacks in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Under the agreement, the second phase of the peace deal will only enter into force once all hostages, both living and deceased, have been returned to Israel.
However, the handover of the killed hostages has been slow, taking more than 11 weeks. The remains of one hostage are still in Gaza. Israel has accused Hamas of using delaying tactics in returning the bodies to regroup and rebuild its forces.
