He Means Business

If Hamas wants to know what will happen if they don’t come through with what they agreed to with the Trump deal, all they need to do is ask Iran. Still they are defiant and hardly compliant. Now Trump has drawn a line in the sand and it’s all about turning over the rest of the bodies of slain Israelis and now he added their killing of Gazans as we see in a report from World Israel News:

US President Donald Trump warned that if Hamas continues executing civilians in Gaza, “we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” signaling a sharp shift in tone after initially suggesting the group had been targeting criminal gangs.

I said that letting Hamas police Gaza was a bad idea the first time I heard and now it appears Trump has seen the light on it as well:

The statement, posted on Truth Social, capped a 48-hour reversal in Trump’s position over the summary killings of Palestinians accused by Hamas of collaborating with Israel. Trump said earlier in the week that he had granted Hamas “approval for a period of time” to carry out executions of what he called “very bad gangs.”

By Wednesday, after reports that civilians were among the victims, he appeared to back away from that stance.

Now it’s official – the US is telling Hamas to stop the killing:

The commander of US forces in the Middle East called on Hamas to immediately stop attacks on “innocent Palestinian civilians,” while Trump told CNN he was “doing more research on it… It could be gangs plus.”

He then clarified who the “we” is that will attack Hamas:

Although the president spoke in “we” terms when threatening retribution, he has clarified in the past that Israel—not the United States—would carry out any such military response if the ceasefire collapses.

Trump previously said that if Hamas breaks the deal Israel will have the green light to finish off Hamas who now has no leverage now that the living hostages are released. It appears that time is rapidly approaching:

His remarks came amid growing reports of executions inside Gaza, where Hamas has allegedly killed scores of men, women, and children in recent days under accusations of collaboration or dissent.

No Political Ambitions?

The leader of an opposition group mentioned in my podcast on tribal warfare in Gaza is asking for help in stopping the killing in Gaza:

In southern Gaza, Hossam al-Astal, a militia leader operating with Israeli support in Khan Younis, released a video urging international intervention to stop what he described as Hamas’s campaign of terror against Gaza’s population.

“Hamas is killing hundreds of children, women, youths and elderly people. Under what charge?” he said. “We came out of a military war into a war of terrorists.”

He went on to say that his group isn’t angling to rule Gaza, but he is after all a military leader who is saying this so I take these words with a grain of salt:

“We are not seeking to rule Gaza or gain influence,” he said. “We want to move the people from Hamas’s rule to civilian rule that will serve the residents. We want peace and we want to live.”

Al-Astal, who thanked President Trump for his ceasefire efforts, appealed for the same resolve to be shown in protecting civilians from Hamas.

Al-Astal is calling on Trump to intervene on behalf of innocent Gazans which I think is a dubious claim considering they were cheering on the recent killings:

“After saving Gazans from Israeli bombardment, the president should now save them from Hamas,” he said. Calling Hamas “100% ISIS,” he demanded that the international community act to defend Gaza’s residents.

Still he repeated his desire to only defeat Hamas to another source:

Speaking later to The Times of Israel, al-Astal said his group would continue fighting Hamas but had no political ambitions.

I know that the enemy of my enemy is my friend so I can see helping them out, but all Gazans hate Israel and Jews all over the world and they’ve been taught that for generations. I would prefer that Israel take over the area to assure that the defeat of all terrorists is completed and then the residents are no longer taught to hate Jews. Demilitarization is the easy part. Deradicalization is the harder part. Both are needed before Gaza is no longer a threat to Israelis again.