They’ve been doing some shooting, and we think maybe the leadership isn’t involved in that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Itay Yavetz — were killed and three were wounded when terror operatives launched an attack on troops in the Rafah area.
The IDF blamed Hamas for the attack, calling it a “blatant” violation of the ceasefire.
The IDF announced the resumption of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening after the attack in the southern Gaza Strip in the morning and a subsequent wave of retaliatory Israeli strikes had threatened to shatter the fragile truce.
Trump told the reporters he did not know whether the Israeli strikes were justified.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump implied that “some rebels within” were responsible for a deadly attack against IDF troops in the southern Gaza Strip, while the Hamas leadership was not involved. “”.
Although the Israel Defense Forces directly blamed Hamas for the attack, Trump’s statement seemed to support the terror group’s claim that the incident happened in an area under Israeli control, where they say they haven’t spoken to their operatives in months.
“They’ve been pretty rowdy, as you know. We believe that the leadership may not be involved in the shooting that they have been doing,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
He continued by saying, “We want to make sure that it’s going to be very peaceful with Hamas.”. “It will be handled properly, but with a lot of rigor. “”.
Trump said the US wants to make sure “that it’s going to be very peaceful with Hamas,” and he expressed hope that the ceasefire would last. “”.
The two Israeli troops — Maj. Staff Sgt. Yaniv Kula, 26, and Yaniv. terror operatives attacked troops in the Rafah region, killing Itay Yavetz and wounding three others. The IDF attributed the attack to Hamas and described it as a “blatant” breach of the ceasefire.
Following the attack in the southern Gaza Strip in the morning and a subsequent round of retaliatory Israeli strikes that threatened to ruin the tenuous truce, the IDF declared the restart of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening.
The Hamas-run civil defense agency reported that the military killed 45 people in Gaza after striking 20 targets; however, the numbers were unverifiable and did not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Trump admitted to reporters that he was unsure if the Israeli strikes were warranted. “On that, I’d have to get back to you,” he stated.
When asked if the truce was still in place, Trump responded, “Yes, it is.”. “”.
It was reported that, just over a week after the US-brokered ceasefire went into effect on October 10, Washington rushed to step in and keep it from coming apart.
According to the Axios outlet, Washington asked Jerusalem to “respond proportionately but show restraint” after discussing the developments with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer with Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and US special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff. “”.
Cracks in the ceasefire appeared ahead of US Vice President JD Vance’s anticipated arrival on Tuesday and Witkoff and Kushner’s planned visit to Israel on Monday to further the ceasefire agreement.
Vance told reporters that there were roughly 40 distinct Hamas cells and that there was no security infrastructure in place to verify their disarmament, but he did not bring up the Israeli strikes.
Probably, some of those cells will adhere to the ceasefire. As we witnessed today, many of those cells won’t,” he stated.
“Some of these Gulf Arab states will need to send forces in there and actually apply some law and order and security keeping on the ground before we can actually ensure that Hamas is properly disarmed,” he stated.
Hamas had to return all 28 of the dead hostages’ bodies and free the remaining 20 hostages as part of the ceasefire and hostage release agreement, which went into effect on October 10 and mainly resulted in an end to fighting in Gaza and an increase in the amount of aid entering the Strip.
Hamas has yet to turn over the bodies of 16 hostages who have died, claiming that it is unable to find them at this time because of the extent of the destruction in the Gaza Strip, despite releasing the remaining hostages during the first 72 hours.
Israel claims that the terrorist organization is purposefully hiding some of the bodies and has accused it of lying.
As outlined in Trump’s 20-point plan, the ceasefire’s second phase will require Hamas to disarm and hand over control of Gaza to a technocratic committee under the direction of an international transitional body.
This report includes contributions from Emanuel Fabian.
