GATESTONE INSTITUTE
Hamas is Humiliating Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’
Khaled Abu Toameh
May 7, 2026

Six months after US President Donald J. Trump unveiled his ambitious ceasefire and reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group remains more armed, entrenched, and openly defiant than ever. Far from disarming, the Islamist group now controls roughly half the Gaza Strip and much of its population, while making a mockery of Trump’s “Board of Peace” initiative and the international mediators sponsoring it. It is now clear that the Trump administration’s strategy was based on a misguided assumption that Hamas (a theocratic terror regime like Iran’s) could somehow be persuaded through negotiations, incentives, and diplomatic pressure to voluntarily surrender its weapons and abandon its jihadist ideology. The exact opposite has happened. Hamas not only rejected disarmament, but also used the ceasefire periods to solidify control, regroup politically and militarily, and humiliate the people negotiating with them. READ MORE