US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 3 June told a Congressional hearing that the reconstruction of Gaza cannot move forward unless Hamas is demilitarised, warning that governments and private investors will not commit billions of dollars while the group retains its military capabilities. Rubio defended the Trump administration's Gaza strategy as Democratic lawmakers pressed him on the pace of the broader peace and reconstruction plan.

Demilitarisation framed as the central obstacle

“The goal now is to demilitarise Hamas,” Rubio said. “That is the impediment that's holding up the rest of it.” The Secretary argued that donor countries and private capital remain interested in Gaza's recovery, but that security concerns continue to block movement.

“No one is going to invest there as long as Hamas is militarised, because as long as Hamas is militarised, they know that there's going to be a war in the future,” he said.

Sharp exchange with Democratic lawmakers

Rubio's remarks came during a pointed back-and-forth with Representative Rosa DeLauro, who questioned the status of the US-backed peace initiative and flagged worsening humanitarian conditions in the territory. Rejecting the suggestion that Washington had moved on from the crisis, Rubio said, “No one's forgotten about it.”

He added that the United States had already committed substantial relief resources: “We spent hundreds of millions of dollars on humanitarian aid in Gaza already.”

A non-Hamas administration and an international force

Rubio outlined a vision that would place Gaza under a non-Hamas Palestinian administration backed by international partners. “What we want, and I think what the Israelis would ultimately want, is a Gaza that is governed by a non-Hamas” authority, he said.

Current discussions, he added, focus on conditions that would allow an international stabilisation force to deploy while longer-term political and economic arrangements are worked out. “We should be having or want to have an international stabilisation force that goes in and provides the security,” Rubio said.

Regional pressure on Hamas

The Secretary said the push for demilitarisation is not solely an American demand. “It's not just the United States that's complaining about it,” he said. “Many of our partners in the region are pressuring Hamas to enter the demilitarisation phase.”

Asked about recent comments attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding control of parts of Gaza, Rubio distanced Washington from such proposals. “That's not part of this plan,” he said. “This plan doesn't call for that.”

What's next

Gaza's future remains one of the most sensitive files in Middle East diplomacy, with international efforts increasingly focused on a political arrangement that prevents renewed conflict while enabling reconstruction of infrastructure, housing, healthcare facilities and public services damaged in years of fighting. The next phase, by Rubio's own framing, hinges on whether regional pressure can move Hamas toward laying down arms — a precondition without which, he argues, no rebuild can credibly begin.