President Donald Trump said “there has to be a disarming of Hamas” as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a crucial meeting as the U.S. looks to shore up the ceasefire in Gaza and move to phase two of the plan.

Trump expressed an eagerness to move “very quickly, as quickly as we can” to the next part of the multi-stage ceasefire on Monday as he welcomed Netanyahu for talks at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

There are numerous obstacles to doing so, however, with the disarmament of Hamas a key sticking point.

The troubled opening months of the multi-staged ceasefire have stoked fears that regional fighting could resume in the new year. Arab and Muslim partners have voiced concerns about continuing Israeli military strikes in the war-shattered and now-divided Palestinian enclave, as well as in Lebanon and Syria.

Trump has been highly supportive of Israel even as it faced censure elsewhere over the carnage in Gaza. But the president has shown impatience with questions of when and how his Gaza plan can move to the reconstruction and reconciliation stages, known as Phase 2.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Netanyahu on Monday. Earlier this month, Rubio told reporters the next step in the peace process should be naming a “Board of Peace” — identifying a group of technocrats who would run Gaza — and a move that would allow for a cohort of foreign troops to create an International Stabilization Force to provide security.

Israel says it’s fending off fresh threats by armed Islamist groups. Chief among these is Hamas, which triggered the two-year conflict in the Gaza Strip and agreed to the truce and a full hostage release — but not to surrender weapons as demanded by Trump’s internationally endorsed 20-point peace plan. The group has said it might be willing to integrate into the military of a future Palestinian state.

In Lebanon, Israel has been hitting Hezbollah and accusing the Beirut government of lagging in its promise to prevent the militia from rearming and regrouping at the border.

Yet Israeli and U.S. officials privately acknowledge arguing over whether Israel should withdraw troops and tanks from parts of the 53% of the territory it still holds, and hand them over to the ISF, even as Hamas remains armed and defiant in the rest.

It’s also unclear whether the ISF would be willing and able to confront Hamas, which is branded a terrorist group in the West.

Trump on Monday also said the parents of the last remaining Israeli hostage taken by Hamas were at Mar-a-Lago, highlighting one of the key lingering issues.

Hamas has blamed technical difficulties for the failure to return the body of the last of the some 250 people it seized during the Oct. 7, 2023 shock invasion of southern Israel, while Israel accuses it of playing for time.

Since the U.S.-backed ceasefire took effect in October, periodic Israeli strikes and operations in Gaza have continued, although large-scale combat has largely come to an end. Israel has said its sporadic strikes were caused by Hamas violations of the truce. The Palestinian group has accused Israel of undermining the ceasefire deal and limiting aid into the enclave.

Trump said the reconstruction of Gaza would begin soon.

“We’re going to straighten it out. We’re already starting certain things,” he said, without providing further details.

Trump also reiterated his threats against Iran, saying that he had heard Tehran was “building up again” after the U.S. — aided by Israel — earlier this year struck nuclear targets in the country.

“We’ll knock them down again,” Trump said Monday.

When Netanyahu took the war to Iran — the sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah — in June, U.S. strategic bombers joined Israel’s air force in the assault on its nuclear facilities.

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—With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron and Ethan Bronner.

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