U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Hamas leaders were told “boldly and directly” that their time was over during recent direct talks between senior members of the group and the Trump administration in Egypt.
Speaking to Israel’s Arutz Sheva, Huckabee defended the talks amid criticism from some Israeli families over contacts involving Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy.
Huckabee said the purpose of the meeting was to make Washington’s position unmistakable: Hamas must disarm and has no future governing the Gaza Strip.
According to remarks cited by the Times of Israel, Huckabee said the U.S. wanted Hamas to hear that message directly rather than through intermediaries such as Qatar, Egypt or Turkey.
He said Hamas was expected to meet commitments under the U.S.-backed peace plan, including the disarmament and demilitarisation of Gaza.
“I don’t think people should be concerned or upset as much as they should be grateful that we’re giving them the message directly,” Huckabee said, adding that Hamas leaders had been told: “Your time is over.”
Asked whether Washington still considered Hamas a terrorist organisation, Huckabee said there had been no change in the U.S. position.
“They are a terrorist organisation. They are not a government,” he said, describing the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel as one of the defining atrocities of the current generation.
Hamas yet to disarm
Huckabee also said the United States continued to recognise Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas and argued that Washington had not criticised Israeli military actions when they were presented as responses to attacks or threats from armed groups.
Turning to Gaza’s political future, Huckabee rejected suggestions that the Trump administration believed Hamas would voluntarily abandon its ideology.
“No one in the United States is naive enough to think that Hamas is going to change its ways,” he said.
He stressed that Hamas had not surrendered any weapons despite disarmament being a central element of the peace proposal.
“How many weapons have they given up? The number is zero,” Huckabee said. “Not a handgun, not a rifle, not even a slingshot.”
Huckabee also sought to clarify Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s objections to later changes to the peace framework.
He said Netanyahu continued to support the original 20-point proposal, which begins with Hamas disarmament, but opposed a subsequently amended 15-point version.
“There has been some confusion about that,” Huckabee said.
Warning to West Bank settlers
Separately, Huckabee warned armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank against taking property belonging to Palestinian Americans, saying those responsible could face U.S. sanctions.
In an interview with Reuters, Huckabee — a Baptist pastor and longstanding supporter of Israeli settlements — criticised actions surrounding homes in the West Bank town of Qusra, including a property owned by Palestinian American Louay Abu Rida.
Israeli settlers began surrounding homes in the town on August 9 in what rights groups described as an attempt to seize privately owned Palestinian land, prompting international criticism.
The Israeli military later deployed dozens of soldiers and moved settlers away from the homes, although residents said they remained nearby and feared renewed attempts to enter the properties once troops withdrew.