Trump Warns Hamas: “Stop the Killing or We’ll Go In and Kill You” — Ceasefire Falters Amid Mounting Violations

By: Fern Sidman

In a strikingly direct message reminiscent of his first term’s uncompromising stance on terror, President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a stern warning to Hamas, declaring that if the terror organization continues killing people in Gaza during the fragile ceasefire, the United States and Israel would “have no choice but to go in and kill them.” The blunt statement, first posted on his Truth Social platform, has sent reverberations through diplomatic circles and reignited questions about the durability of the U.S.-brokered truce.

As Israel National News (INN) reported on Thursday, the President’s warning followed intelligence assessments showing that Hamas had violated several key provisions of the ceasefire agreement, most notably by refusing to return the full number of deceased hostages and by engaging in renewed acts of violence inside the Gaza Strip. “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. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Though characteristically terse, Trump’s post carried unmistakable intent: the ceasefire is conditional, not open-ended, and Hamas’s continued acts of aggression would be met with immediate and lethal consequences.

According to the information provided in the Israel National News (INN) report, the current truce—brokered under the oversight of the Trump administration with Egyptian and Qatari intermediaries—was structured around two central commitments: the release of all 20 living hostages in Hamas captivity, and the return of all bodies of deceased captives to Israeli authorities. The agreement also stipulated a total halt in hostilities within Gaza and along Israel’s border.

While the first component has been fulfilled—20 living hostages have been safely returned to Israel—Hamas has blatantly violated the second. As the INN report detailed, the group has returned only eight bodies, and one of them did not belong to a hostage at all, but to a Palestinian resident of Gaza. This misstep, Israeli officials say, was no mistake but a deliberate act of manipulation aimed at sowing confusion and delay in the repatriation process.

“Hamas knows exactly who they are holding and where those bodies are,” an Israeli security official told INN. “Their refusal to comply is a tactical maneuver—an effort to leverage the suffering of bereaved Israeli families for further political gain.”

In a follow-up interview with CNN, President Trump underscored that Israel’s restraint is neither permanent nor unconditional. “What’s going on with Hamas—that’ll be straightened out quickly,” he said. When pressed on the timeline for a potential Israeli military response, Trump replied that the IDF could resume operations “as soon as I say the word.”

According to the report at INN, this language reflects a continuation of Trump’s long-standing “maximum pressure” approach to terrorism, one that prioritizes swift punitive action over protracted diplomatic entreaty. During his first administration, Trump pursued similar strategies against the Islamic State and Iran’s Quds Force, culminating in the targeted killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020—a move widely credited with reshaping deterrence across the Middle East.

Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem told INN that the President’s remarks were intended not merely as bluster, but as an unmistakable signal to Hamas’s political bureau in Doha and its leadership in Gaza that the United States would tolerate no deviation from the ceasefire’s framework.

“The President’s message is being heard loud and clear in Gaza,” one senior Israeli defense official told INN. “Trump is making it clear that this ceasefire is not a shield for terrorists—it’s a test of their sincerity. If Hamas fails, the consequences will be devastating.”

Echoing the growing frustration in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar confirmed that Israeli intelligence is in possession of concrete evidence that Hamas has the ability to comply with the agreement’s conditions but is willfully withholding the bodies of slain hostages.

“We know, as a matter of fact, they can easily bring back a significant number of dead hostages and give them back according to the agreement,” Sa’ar said in a statement carried by Israel National News (INN). “This is not about logistics—it’s about cruelty and leverage.”

Israeli intelligence assessments, shared with Washington and cited by INN, indicate that Hamas has concealed the remains of at least 20 additional hostages, many of whom were executed in captivity or killed during Israeli airstrikes. Officials believe the terror organization is using the bodies as bargaining chips to extract further concessions, such as easing of border restrictions or the release of additional Palestinian prisoners.

The Israeli public’s patience with the ceasefire has grown increasingly thin. Israel National News reported that families of both the living and deceased hostages have rallied outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, demanding that the government end the truce and resume military operations in Gaza.

“Every minute that Hamas delays the return of our dead is another humiliation,” one bereaved father told INN. “We have made our moral gesture by freeing their prisoners—now we are being mocked.”

Similar sentiments are being echoed across Israel’s political spectrum. Opposition leader Yair Lapid has called the partial return of bodies “an act of moral terrorism,” while members of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s cabinet have privately admitted that the ceasefire is “collapsing in slow motion.”

The IDF General Staff has reportedly been instructed to maintain a state of immediate readiness for renewed operations. According to the information contained in the INN report, units stationed along the Gaza border have been conducting night drills and reconnaissance flights in anticipation of possible directives to reengage.

Trump’s reassertion of personal control over the ceasefire’s fate marks a return to a command-style diplomacy that defined his prior administration’s Middle East policy. The report at Israel National News pointed out that, unlike the bureaucratic caution of past U.S. presidents, Trump’s method relies on public ultimatums—statements designed to produce immediate behavioral change rather than slow diplomatic maneuvering.

Analysts quoted by INN note that this strategy is rooted in Trump’s belief that clarity and credibility of threat are more powerful than ambiguity. “When Trump says ‘as soon as I say the word,’ he is reminding Hamas that deterrence is personal, not procedural,” said Dr. Yossi Kuperwasser, a former head of Israeli military intelligence. “In his view, diplomacy without the shadow of force is empty talk.”

For the Trump administration, the ceasefire serves not only as a humanitarian arrangement but also as a litmus test for Hamas’s governability. “If Hamas cannot maintain basic order within Gaza and uphold its word on the hostages, then it is proving that it is unfit to rule,” one U.S. official told INN.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s internal divisions appear to be widening. Sources in Gaza cited by INN describe a rising conflict between the group’s military leadership in the Strip and its political bureau in Qatar. The military wing reportedly views the ceasefire as a betrayal of the “resistance,” while the political leadership seeks to avoid further devastation in Gaza and potential American retaliation.

“These fractures make compliance even less likely,” noted an Israeli intelligence officer quoted by INN. “When Hamas negotiates, it negotiates with itself first—and right now, it’s losing that argument.”

With the ceasefire teetering on the brink, Israel National News reported that diplomatic channels remain active but strained. Egypt has intensified efforts to mediate, while Qatar faces pressure from Washington to enforce Hamas’s compliance from within its borders.

Still, officials in both Jerusalem and Washington agree that time is rapidly running out. If Hamas fails to deliver the remaining bodies within days, Trump is expected to authorize a coordinated Israeli military response, likely focused on targeted strikes against high-value Hamas operatives in Gaza City and Khan Yunis.

“Hamas is playing with fire,” a senior Israeli defense source told INN. “They have been warned not once, not twice, but now directly by the President of the United States. If they cross this line again, the response will be decisive—and final.”

The current impasse illustrates the fragility of postwar diplomacy in Gaza and the enduring volatility of Hamas’s power structure. As the Israel National News report emphasized, the ceasefire that once symbolized hope for the return of all captives now stands as a measure of Hamas’s duplicity—and of Washington’s resolve.

For Trump, the calculus is brutally simple: peace must serve justice, not reward murder. “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza,” he wrote, “we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.”

It is a warning that leaves no room for misinterpretation—and one that may soon determine whether Gaza’s brief silence becomes a lasting peace or a prelude to another round of war.