US President Donald Trump has made threats against Hamas so frequent that they have become almost daily, warning on Monday that the movement would be “destroyed” if it did not adhere to the ceasefire agreement with the occupation — and threatening he might order a new military strike in the area.
“If we have to do it, they will be destroyed — and they know that,” Trump said on Monday, asserting that if violence in Gaza continues, “we will step in and handle it, and it will happen very quickly and very violently,” according to his claims reported in international press.
Trump added that US forces would not take part in any renewed fighting, saying other countries and forces were available and prepared to carry out orders if he judged that Hamas had violated the ceasefire.
He told reporters at the White House that several nations had offered to intervene after seeing certain killings linked to Hamas, and he said the US would give the situation “a little chance” in the hope that violence would subside.
In a separate interview with Fox News, Trump also said there was no fixed timetable for disarming Hamas and that the implementation of the ceasefire would depend on developments on the ground and political progress — “not a hard timeline,” he said, emphasising that Hamas must “do what is required of it in this phase.”
Last Thursday, Trump posted on his platform that if Hamas continued killing people “we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.” These statements sit uneasily with his earlier remarks praising some of Hamas’s internal crackdowns on collaborators and reflect a shifting, threatening posture toward Gaza.
Context in Brief
- The president’s threats come amid fragile ceasefire arrangements between Israel and Hamas; both sides continue to exchange accusations of violations as international mediation attempts to hold.
- Trump links broader regional objectives to the agreement, telling interviewers he saw disarming Hamas as part of a longer process and has spoken about regional reconstruction plans for Gaza — signalling a mix of threats and promises in Washington’s posture.
Editorial note
These public threats from the White House must be read in the larger frame of power and occupation. Demands to “destroy” a resistance movement while refusing to address the root causes of occupation, blockade, and collective punishment reveal the political calculus of coercion: disarm the oppressed, then speak of order. For Muslims and supporters of Palestinian dignity, the central question remains: who will guarantee the rights and safety of the Palestinian people if violence is again unleashed under foreign auspices?
