Trump says Hamas will be ‘eradicated’ if they breach Gaza ceasefire deal

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump warned Hamas Monday it would be “eradicated” if it breaches the Gaza deal with Israel, but said he would give the Palestinian militant group a chance to honor the truce.
Vice President JD Vance headed to Israel shortly after Trump’s comments, joining two top US envoys after weekend violence threatened to wreck the fragile ceasefire.
“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,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“And if they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them, if we have to. They’ll be eradicated, and they know that.”
Trump helped broker the Gaza deal nearly two weeks ago but it has repeatedly come under threat as Israel accuses Hamas of stalling on handing over dead hostages, and of launching attacks.
Hamas’s top negotiator, Khalil Al-Hayya, told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News that the group was still committed to the ceasefire agreement.
“We are finding it extremely difficult to extract the bodies, but we are serious and working hard to extract them,” he said in comments broadcast Tuesday morning.
“The Gaza agreement will hold, because we want it to and our will to abide by it is strong.”
Trump has also warned the militant group to stop public executions of rivals and alleged collaborators as it seeks to reestablish its grip on the devastated territory.
Trump, however, insisted that American forces would not be involved in confronting against Hamas, saying dozens of countries that have agreed to join an international stabilization forces for Gaza would “love to go in.”
“In addition, you have Israel would go in in two minutes, if I asked them to go in,” Trump 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. But right now, you know, they’re violent people,” he added.
“They got very rambunctious, and they did things that they shouldn’t be doing, and if they keep doing it, then we’re going to go in and straighten it out, and it’ll happen very quickly and pretty violently.”
Trump said that Hamas was now far weaker, especially as regional backer Iran was now unlikely to step in on its behalf following US and Israeli strikes this year.
“They don’t have the backing of really anybody anymore. They have to be good, and if they’re not good, they’ll be eradicated,” Trump stressed.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser son-in-law Jared Kushner met Netanyahu on Monday to discuss “developments and updates in the region,” a spokesman for the prime minister’s office said.
Vance and his wife Usha later left Washington for Israel without commenting to reporters. They were also due to meet with Netanyahu, the prime minister’s office said.