President Donald Trump fired off a major threat to Hamas on Thursday, saying “we will have no choice” but to take out the terrorists if they continue to kill people in Gaza.
Trump issued the threat in a post on Truth Social as the terror group is ramping up efforts to reassert control of the region by publicly executing Gazans and clashing with rival groups.
“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote.
Trump later told reporters that he did not mean U.S. forces would be used to take out the terrorists.
“I didn’t say who will go in, but somebody will go in,” he said. “It’s not going to be us. We won’t have to. There are people very close, very nearby that will go in. They’ll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.”
Hamas agreed to the first phase of the Trump-brokered peace plan with Israel, which initiated a ceasefire while Hamas handed over the remaining living hostages in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds of terrorists. The terror group, however, has not yet agreed to other points of Trump’s peace plan, which call on Hamas fighters to lay down their weapons and give up control of the Gaza Strip.
After the ceasefire went into effect and Israeli troops withdrew from parts of Gaza, Hamas appears to have no intention of ending its fight for control. This week, Hamas has killed around 20 fighters from rival groups, while at least 10 Hamas terrorists have been killed in the skirmishes, The New York Times reported.
Trump’s warning to Hamas comes one day after the U.S. Central Command “strongly” urged the terror group to end its violence in Gaza, The Daily Wire previously reported. Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, issued a statement on Wednesday calling on Hamas to take advantage of “an historic opportunity for peace … by fully standing down, strictly adhering to Trump’s 20-point peace plan, and disarming without delay.”
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On Tuesday, the president remained optimistic that Hamas would agree to disarm, but he added that he would ensure the terrorists were disarmed by force if they didn’t agree to lay down their weapons voluntarily.
“They’re going to disarm because they said they were going to disarm,” Trump said. “And if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them.”
“They know I’m not playing games,” the president added.
Administration officials said earlier this week that there were currently no plans to deploy U.S. troops to Israel or Gaza. Two hundred American troops stationed at CENTCOM have been tasked with “monitoring the peace agreement,” according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who added that reports that U.S. soldiers were being deployed to Israel were “NOT true and taken out of context.”
Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday, “We’re not planning to put boots on the ground. What we already have is a U.S. Central Command, we already have people in that region of the world. They’re going to monitor the terms of the ceasefire. They’re going to monitor, ensure the humanitarian aid is flowing.”
This article has been updated to include additional comments from President Trump.
