President is running out of time on Ukraine and Gaza

Donald Trump concluded a summit with Benjamin Netanyahu at Mara-Lago yesterday with a vow that Hamas would have “hell to pay” if it did not disarm under the terms of a US-brokered ceasefire agreement in the coming weeks.

- JOHN BOWDEN IN WASHINGTON DC

After two days of whirlwind diplomacy the president was insistent that his negotiating teams were making progress towards ending two destructive conflicts in eastern Europe and the Middle East, where US involvement is increasingly being questioned and staggering death tolls continue to mount.

The actual details of the US's supposed gains in either discussion remain unclear, however, and beyond Mr Trump's assertions, there is little evidence to support the idea that either the war in Ukraine or the horrific conditions in Gaza will abate any time soon.

Yesterday, the president spoke side by side with Netanyahu after declaring that the two had solved several vague points of disagreement. At a news conference, Mr Trump repeated a murky timeline for Hamas forces to disarm within the Gaza Strip, and indicated that the war would resume in earnest if the militant group violated the agreement in any manner.

"If they don't disarm as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, then there will be hell to pay for them. And we don't want that. We're not looking for that," said the president. "They're going to be given a very short period of time to disarm. And we'll see how that works out."