As Israel and Hamas approach four months of a peace agreement brokered by President Donald Trump, pressure is mounting for Hamas to disarm. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, appearing on “This Week on Capitol Hill” over the weekend, reported that while residents of the Jewish state are enjoying a greater degree of peace and non-violence than they have witnessed in years, Hamas has yet to fully disarm, still posing a risk to Israel.

“Hamas popped out of some of the tunnels that they spent billions of dollars building, and they fired at IDF soldiers. One was critically wounded. And Israel, of course, retaliated, as they should, and they took out some Hamas targets,” Huckabee recalled. “Israel is striking back when they’re shot at. I don’t know of anybody who wouldn’t shoot back. But it’s really just the way the media characterizes it.”

However, the ceasefire Trump brokered in October has largely held, Huckabee shared. “The reason I can say that is because it’s been now over four months since Janet and I have been awakened in the middle of the night with a siren and had 90 seconds to get to a shelter. So for the first time in the nearly-[one] year that I’ve been here, we’ve had four months with undisturbed peace at night,” the ambassador said. “So for the cynics who say ‘Nothing is happening, it’s not working,’ I would tell you differently. The hostages are all home, every last one of them, living and deceased.”

The only thing left to do at this point, Huckabee asserted, is force Hamas to lay down its weapons. “Hamas agreed to disarm. They said they would. They signed on to the deal that every Arab country signed on to,” the ambassador observed. “At some point, they’re going to have to understand it’s over for them. President Trump has made that very, very clear. They’re going to disarm, and they have no future in Gaza,” he added.

The ambassador noted that Egypt and Turkey are pressuring Hamas to disarm as well. “But let’s face it, Hamas — anybody who would do what they did on October 7 [2023] and what they continue to do in torturing, starving, beating those hostages for more than two years — these are not honorable people. They’re not even civilized,” Huckabee charged. “So to have some expectation that they’re going to suddenly start acting like decent human beings, I think is a bridge too far. Doesn’t mean they won’t disarm. It’s just that they may not do it voluntarily,” he added, warning that Trump will likely bring greater pressure to bear on Hamas to force disarmament if necessary. “There’s going to be, at some point, disarming of Hamas, and there will be a phase two. It will happen. The sooner that Hamas recognizes its future is not in Gaza, the better this all gets.”

Disarming Hamas is a “red line” for Israel, Huckabee reported, encouraging other “decent countries” to similarly treat it as a “red line.” In particular, he noted that disarming Hamas is a matter of importance for Arab states in the region that signed on to the peace plan Trump arranged. “They all put their names on the peace plan, every one of them. It was unanimous. And they all said, as part of the 20-point plan, Hamas must disarm, disarm and demilitarize,” Huckabee pointed out. “So I don’t think there’s anybody standing there applauding Hamas right now, and they’re gumming up the works, and it’s time for them to give up.”

Huckabee also addressed talks between the U.S. and Iran, centered on restricting Iran’s weapons program and curbing the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses. The first round of discussions, which concluded on Friday, saw the U.S. attempt to include both nuclear and ballistic missiles in its framework for restriction, while Iran insisted that it would not agree to downsize its ballistic missile program. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi even said that maintaining its ballistic missiles was a “non-negotiable” for Iran. “Maybe Iran will remember what happened to them last summer; they’ll realize they don’t want to go through that again, and maybe they come to a new way of looking at life. Let’s hope so,” Huckabee said, referring to the U.S. Operation Midnight Hammer, which targeted Iranian nuclear development sites.

According to the ambassador, the U.S. is pushing for Iran to surrender its nuclear weapons development capabilities, including uranium enrichment capabilities, and begin scaling back its ballistic missile arsenal. “Now, the question is, do any of us think that that’s what they’re really hoping to do and wanting to do and will do?” Huckabee asked. He suggested that “after 47 years of saying ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel,’” Iran may not be prepared “to lay down their sword and pick up a pitchfork and start farming.” However, he added, the talks are “an important step to take to give them every opportunity — and I’ll quote the president again — to do this the easy way instead of the hard way.”

In the meantime, Huckabee asked Americans for prayers. “Pray that if these peace talks have a possibility, that they will succeed. Look, I’d love for it to happen, because if we have another war, I’m in the middle of it. I’d just soon pass,” he shared. “Pray that the hand of God will be even better and bigger and more effective than the incredible military strength of both the U.S. and Israel. Great military strength, but even more powerful is the hand of Almighty God.”