Trump Says Hamas Could Be Eradicated If It Doesn’t Abide by Cease-Fire

President Donald Trump said on Oct. 20 that Hamas could be eradicated if it does not abide by the recently brokered cease-fire between the terrorist group and Israel.

“We have a peace in the Middle East for the first time ever,” Trump said. “We made a deal with Hamas that, you know, they’re going to be very good, they’re going to behave, they’re going to be nice. And if they’re not, we’re going to … eradicate them, if we have to.

“This is a very violent group of people, and they got very rambunctious, and they did things that they shouldn’t be doing,” he said during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “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.”

Trump said he would not send U.S. forces to do it.

“We don’t need to because we have many countries, as you know, signed on to this deal,” he said. “We’ve had countries calling me when they saw some of the killing with Hamas, saying, ‘We’d love to go and take care of the situation ourselves.'”

Trump said Israel would be able to get rid of Hamas.

“Israel would go in in two minutes if I asked them to go in,” the president said. “I could tell them, ‘Go in and take care of it.’ But right now, we haven’t said that.”

Trump’s warning comes amid reports that Hamas has violated the cease-fire brokered by the Trump administration, Qatar, and Egypt.

Hamas has executed people in Gaza it has accused of collaborating with its enemies.

Additionally, Hamas struck Israel Defense Forces (IDF) positions in the Gazan area of Rafah on Oct. 19, the IDF reported.

In response, Israel struck Hamas targets throughout Gaza.

“The strikes targeted weapons storage facilities, firing posts, terrorist cells and additional Hamas terror infrastructure,” wrote the IDF in an Oct. 19 post on X.

“In addition, the IDF struck and dismantled ~6 km of underground terrorist infrastructure, used to advance attacks against Israel, using over 120 munitions.

The IDF subsequently said it would uphold the cease-fire.

“In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’ violations, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire, in line with the terms of the agreement,” it said on X. “The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it.”

Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq told the BBC that the terrorist group “remains committed to the ceasefire agreement” and accused Israel of “violating the deal and fabricating pretexts to justify its crimes.”

Regarding Hamas’s attack on Israeli forces, Trump said that the group “had some rebellion in there among themselves” and that its leadership was not involved.