President Donald Trump demanded Thursday that Hamas stop killing people in Gaza, or his administration “will have no choice but to kill them.”
Trump issued the ultimatum in a Truth Social post, shortly after he concluded a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“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!” he wrote.
Reuters reported, citing a “Palestinian security source,” that Hamas had killed over 30 “gang” members in Gaza City.
Trump’s tough rhetoric toward Hamas echoes his tone on Tuesday, when he called for the group to disarm, and from earlier in the month when he gave the terrorist organization a firm deadline to accept his peace proposal.
“They will disarm, and if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently,” Trump said on Tuesday.
Trump visited both Israel and Egypt on Monday on the heels of Hamas’s acceptance of the peace proposal’s first stage, which included the release of 20 living hostages.
Per the New York Times, of the eight deceased hostages turned over to Israel, six were identified as Israeli, while one remained unidentified and another was found to be Nepali.
However, the BBC reported on Wednesday, “Hamas says it needs specialist equipment to find the remaining 19 Israeli bodies.”
“The announcement was met with frustration from the families of hostages, who are calling on the Israeli government to stop the implementation of the next phase of the ceasefire until all remains are returned,” the outlet added.
Trump noted while speaking in Egypt that he and other world leaders concur that reconstruction in Gaza will require demilitarization.
“We also agreed that Gaza’s reconstruction requires that it be demilitarized and that a new, honest civilian police force must be allowed to create a safe condition for the people in Gaza,” he said.
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