President Donald Trump issued a final, stern warning to Hamas on Thursday to abide by the existing ceasefire agreement regarding Gaza.
Footage surfaced earlier this week allegedly showing Hamas members executing Palestinians in Gaza, just days after Trump traveled to Israel and Egypt to formalize the brokered peace between Israel and Hamas.
“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,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Still, Trump’s use of the word “we” in the aforementioned statement raises questions about the possibility of U.S. troops taking part in missions to wipe out the terrorist group, despite the Trump administration’s claims that U.S. forces would not be deployed on the ground in Gaza.
Instead, top Trump aides maintained that U.S. personnel would lend operational support and oversight to an international peacekeeping force responsible for policing Gaza as the peace process progresses.
White House officials did not immediately respond to questions about the president’s choice of language.
On Wednesday, senior U.S. advisers informed reporters that Trump’s Gaza peace plan was proceeding into its second phase, despite Hamas failing to turn over all of the bodies of deceased hostages as outlined in the agreement.
“We got through phase one very, very well, and now we’re all working hard to create the conditions for a successful implementation of phase two,” one advisor explained. “Phase two calls for a nonpolitical, technocratic, Palestinian governance there, and that process is starting to find the right people, recruit the right people, create the right conditions for it.”
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“The short-term focus continues to be on deconfliction to make sure that people don’t do unnecessary provocations. We are seeing different actions on all sides that obviously President Trump and his team are working very hard to minimize,” that person added, in reference to reports of Hamas executing Palestinians.