President Trump on Monday warned Hamas against further attacks against Israel’s military after the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza was disrupted over the weekend.
“This is a very violent group of people, and 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, unfortunately, we are going to eradicate Hamas,” Trump said during a meeting with Australia’s prime minister.
Israel said on Sunday that “terrorists” attacked IDF positions in the Rafah area, in southern Gaza – holding Hamas responsible. Israel’s airstrikes killed more than two dozen in Gaza, according to Reuters.
Hamas and its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said on Sunday that they remain committed to the ceasefire and rejected involvement in an attack on Israeli forces, CNN reported.
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq, in a statement reported by the BBC, accused Israel of “violating the deal and fabricating pretexts to justify its crimes,” but said the group remains committed to the ceasefire.
Israel also recommitted to the ceasefire, which Trump announced on Oct. 8.
“The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it,” the IDF said in a post on X on Sunday.
Trump on Monday said Hamas’s “leadership” was not involved in the attack on Israeli forces, saying “they had some rebellion in there among themselves.”
But he told the group to make sure it didn’t happen again, adding, “that will be taken care of very quickly if they don’t straighten that themselves, because they’re in violation of their agreement.”
President Trump’s top envoys for the Middle East arrived in Israel on Monday to bolster efforts to maintain the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy for peace missions, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law serving as a special advisor, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and discussed “developments and updates in the region,” the Times of Israel reported, citing an official in the prime minister’s office.
Vice President Vance and his wife are expected to travel to the region and spend a few days in Israel, the official said.
The imposition of the ceasefire has allowed for an overall pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas, a major reprieve for more than two million Palestinians and a scale up of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
While Hamas followed through on handing over to Israel the remaining 20 living hostages it had held since kidnapping them during their terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, it has taken a longer period of time to recover and hand over the bodies of deceased hostages.
The Red Cross told the Times of Israel on Monday that it is preparing to receive the body of a slain hostage at 8 p.m. Israel time after Hamas retrieved the body on Sunday.
