Trump warns Hamas will be ‘eradicated’ if ceasefire breached
Donald Trump said he would give Hamas a chance to honour the Gaza truce with Israel, but warned if it didn’t, the group ‘will be straightened out violently’.
Donald Trump has said he would give Hamas a chance to honour the Gaza truce deal with Israel, but warned the group would be “eradicated” if it fails to do so.
“We made a deal with Hamas that they’re going to be very good, they’re going to behave, they’re going to be nice,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House as he hosted Anthony Albanese.
“And if they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them, if we have to.”
Mr Trump stressed there would be no US boots on the ground and said Israel hadn’t been given the green light to go back into Gaza. However, he warned if the militants breached the truce: “They’ll be eradicated, and they know that.”
He spoke as another hostage’s body was returned to Israel, and two of his top envoys met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after weekend violence threatened to wreck the fragile ceasefire the US president brokered nearly two weeks ago.
“This is a violent group,” Mr Trump said. “They got very rambunctious and they did things that they shouldn’t be doing. If they keep doing it then we’re going to straighten it out, and it’ll happen very quickly and pretty violently.”
Mr Trump said dozens of countries that have agreed to join an international stabilisation forces for Gaza would “love to go in.”
“In addition, you have Israel would go in two minutes, if I asked them to go in,” he said.
“But right now, we haven’t said that. We’re going to give it a little chance, and hopefully there will be a little less violence.”
Mr Trump said Hamas was now far weaker, especially given that regional backer Iran was now unlikely to step in on its behalf following US and Israeli strikes earlier this year.
US Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner advised Mr Netanyahu not to do anything that would “endanger” the ceasefire, according to Israeli media.
“Do not act in a way that would endanger the ceasefire. We want to do everything to reach the second phase,” they said, adding that while “self-defence” is acceptable, “risking the ceasefire” is not, Channel 12 reports.
Their meeting came as Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Gaza for aid shipments after the entry point was closed briefly on Sunday following the killing of two Israeli soldiers.
In response, Israel carried out dozens of strikes targeting Hamas across Gaza – using 153 tonnes of bombs, according to Mr Netanyahu – and accused the militant group of “a blatant violation” of the truce, an accusation it denied.
Mr Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who also attended the meeting, assured the envoys that Israel remained committed to the ceasefire framework but expected Hamas to uphold its side of the agreement.
Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner were in Israel to discuss “developments and updates in the region”, Shosh Bedrosian, spokeswoman for the prime minister’s office, told journalists.
Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner also met with two IDF major generals to assess Israel’s efforts to advance Mr Trump’s peace plan, Channel 12 reports.
During the meetings, they discussed “the entire mechanism for dismantling and demilitarising postwar Gaza,” and “made it clear that they want to ensure the IDF is making all the preparations necessary to carry out the second phase of the agreement,” the broadcaster reports.
Ms Bedrosian added that US Vice President JD Vance and his wife were also due to visit Israel “for a few days and will be meeting with the prime minister”.
Mr Netanyahu later told the Israeli parliament that Mr Vance was due to arrive on Tuesday for discussions on “two things … the security challenges we face and the diplomatic opportunities before us”.
“We will overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities,” he added.
AFP
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