Trump Warns Hamas Will Be Eradicated if Gaza Truce Is Violated
US President Donald Trump has warned that Hamas will be “eradicated” if it breaches the Gaza ceasefire agreement with Israel, while expressing cautious optimism that the truce will hold. Speaking during a joint news conference at the White House with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Trump said Hamas would be given “a little chance” to honour the peace deal. “Hamas are 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 go in and eradicate them if we have to. They will be eradicated, and they know that,” Trump said. The president clarified that any future military response would not directly involve US troops, but emphasized that Israel would act swiftly if provoked. “Israel would go back in in two minutes if I asked them to … but we’re going to give it a little chance,” he added. Analysis: Netanyahu’s Political Balancing Act Tel Aviv-based analyst and former Associated Press regional editor Dan Perry told Al Jazeera that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is caught between a public weary of war and political allies demanding Hamas’s total destruction. “Netanyahu does not want to go back to war because the Israeli public is sick of the war and he has elections coming up,” Perry said. “But Israelis are also struggling to accept the idea of Hamas remaining across the border, alive to fight another day.” Perry noted that disarming Hamas remains crucial to maintaining regional support for the US-backed peace plan and preventing renewed conflict in Gaza.