Statement appears to signal about-face from US president, who previously backed Hamas’s crackdown on Gaza gangs.
Published On 16 Oct 2025
United States President Donald Trump has threatened to break the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas if the Palestinian group continues to target gangs and alleged Israeli collaborators in Gaza.
“If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
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The statement appears to signal an about-face from Trump, who earlier this week expressed support for Hamas’s crackdown on gangs in the Palestinian territory.
“They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad, very, very bad gangs,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “And they did take them out, and they killed a number of gang members. And that didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s OK.”
There have been deadly clashes reported between Hamas and armed clan members in Gaza, whom Hamas has accused of looting humanitarian aid and working for Israel.
After the fighting, the Interior Ministry in Gaza issued general amnesty for gang members who did not participate in the bloodshed.
In June, Israeli officials admitted to arming Gaza gangs, some of which have ties to ISIL (ISIS), to rival Hamas.
On Sunday, gunmen from a Gaza gang linked to Israel killed prominent Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi, according to local forces.
Earlier this week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Hamas over accusations that the group executed suspected Israel collaborator, calling the purported killings a “heinous crime”.
“What happened represents a crime, a flagrant violation of human rights, and a serious assault on the principle of the rule of law,” Abbas’s office said in a statement.
Under Trump’s ceasefire plan, Hamas would disarm and end any role in the governance of Gaza. But it is not clear whether the group has agreed to these conditions.
The truce has largely held since coming into effect on Saturday. But Israel has repeatedly violated the agreement, killing Palestinians daily under the justification that they approached areas under the control of the Israeli military, which are not clearly marked.
Israel has also threatened to restrict humanitarian aid to Gaza while refusing to open the Rafah crossing between the Palestinian enclave and Egypt to facilitate the movement of people in and out of the territory.
Trump has hailed the ceasefire as the dawn of “a new Middle East”, but his latest casts doubt on the sustainability of the truce, amid continuing Israeli occupation and unclarity over the future governance of Gaza.
