Just days after the U.S.-backed ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect, President Trump has issued new threats against Hamas, saying Thursday the United States would back a military intervention against the group if it fails to uphold the ceasefire agreement.
“There is the fear all the time that the war will be renewed,” says Amira Hass, Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who joins us from Ramallah. Hass is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and is the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent 30 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank.
Transcript
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AMY GOODMAN: We begin today’s show looking at Gaza. President Trump has issued new threats against Hamas, saying Thursday the United States would back a military intervention against the group if it fails to uphold the ceasefire deal. Trump spoke from the Oval Office.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have a commitment from them, and I assume they’re going to honor that commitment. I hope they do. … We’re going to find out if they behave, if they behave good. If they don’t behave, we’ll take care of it. … I didn’t say who would go in, but somebody will go in. It’s not going to be us. We won’t have to. There are people very close, very nearby, that will go in. They’ll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.”
AMY GOODMAN: Earlier Thursday, Trump wrote on Truth Social, quote, “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. Thank you for your attention to this matter.” Trump’s tone shifted from earlier this week, when he said Hamas had taken out, quote, “a couple of gangs that were very bad. That didn’t bother me much,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments came amidst reports of recent clashes between Hamas and armed gangs accused of looting humanitarian aid and working for Israel. Al Jazeera reported Israeli officials in June admitted to arming gangs in Gaza, some with ties to the Islamic State, in an effort to destabilize Hamas. Some of these groups were linked to the killing of the Palestinian journalist Saleh Aljafarawi on Sunday, after the U.S.-backed Gaza deal went into effect. Trump has made no mention of repeated Israeli attacks this week that killed several Palestinians, including in Gaza City.
On Thursday, Hamas returned the remains of two more Israeli hostages, but the group said it needs specialized equipment, presently banned from entry into Gaza by Israel, that would help retrieve the remaining deceased captives trapped beneath the rubble. The U.N. estimates some 55 million tons of debris must be cleared before reconstruction efforts in Gaza can begin.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Meanwhile, families in Gaza are still facing hunger and severe shortages of water, medicines and other vital necessities. As Israel continues to delay the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, many Palestinians in need of urgent medical care also remain in limbo.
For more, we’re joined by longtime Israeli journalist Amira Hass, the Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Palestinian Territories based in Ramallah. She was born in Jerusalem and is the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She’s the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent 30 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank. Her books include Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege. Her latest piece for Haaretz is headlined “Will Israelis One Day Say of Their Country’s Atrocities in Gaza, ‘I Was Always Against It’?”
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Amira. If you could just begin by, first of all, responding to the ceasefire, that is, at least in part, holding, and what you think the prospects are of its success?
AMIRA HASS: Hello.
The ceasefire is — at least relieves people of this fear, permanent fear, of bombings and bombardments and shellings. At least they can go out and look for food and look for water. At least some of the prices of the food is lowered. Yeah, all these little things, that are very big for Palestinians, are there. But there is the fear all the time that the war will be renewed and for different — for different pretexts.
But it’s important to say, when Trump says that he will fight against Hamas, he will not fight against Hamas. If a new war — if the war is restarting, it’s against the people. It’s not against Hamas, because Hamas is an organization, and Hamas aren’t people. We see they remain. They are there. But the people are being attacked. The children and the women and the young men and old men are and women are being attacked.
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