President Donald Trump gestures from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez) US President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated his view that the ceasefire in Gaza, which he helped broker is still holding, despite the flare-up on Sunday. Trump said that the deadly attack on IDF troops in Gaza, which resulted in the ceasefire to breakdown temporarily was not authorised by the Hamas leadership.
‘Attack on IDF not authorised by Hamas leadership’
“I don’t believe it was the leadership, but they have some rebellion in there among themselves. They killed some people — a lot of people,” Trump said, referring to Sunday’s attacks.
‘Hamas has to be nice’
He, however, made it clear that Hamas has the responsibility to uphold their end of the ceasefire deal, and warned that any violation may not go down well for the group.
“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, and if not, we’re going to eradicate them if we have to,” Trump said.
‘I can ask Netanyahu’
The US President, later clarified that America will not have boots on the ground in Gaza to deal with Hamas.
“No, it won’t be on the ground at all,” Trump said, adding that he can ask Benjamin Netanyahu to break the ceasefire and have Israel Defense Forces eradicate Hamas.
“Israel would go in in two minutes if I asked them. I could tell them, ‘Go in and take care of it.’ But right now, we haven’t said that. We’re going to give it a little chance,” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly warned Hamas
This is not the first time Trump, who played the lead role in ending the two years of war in Gaza, has promised to use force on Hamas if they failed to comply with the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
On Thursday, while commenting about the public executions Hamas carried out in Gaza, Trump said the killings are in violation of the ceasefire deal, and if such acts continue, the US will have no choice but “to go in and kill them”.
Prior to that, on Tuesday, Trump had repeated his demand for Hamas to disarm, as part of the ceasefire deal and warned that “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
‘No hard timeline for Hamas to disarm’
On Sunday, Trump told Fox News that Hamas has promised it would disarm but, added that there is no hard timeline for when that will happen.
“It’s not a hard timeline, but it’s a line in my own mind. At a certain point, if they don’t do what they’re supposed to do, then we’ll have to do it for [them],” Trump said.
