US President Donald Trump said that Hamas is refusing to accept a ceasefire in Gaza because it is afraid of what would happen after all the Israeli captives are released.
Trump’s remarks at the White House on Friday seem to imply that the US and Israel are more interested in a temporary truce to release Israeli captives from Gaza than in securing a long-term end to the conflict.
“We’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump warned that the Palestinian group would be “hunted down” and held it exclusively responsible for the ceasefire negotiations’ apparent breakdown.
The president added that Hamas was not particularly interested in striking a ceasefire deal. “I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad,” he remarked.
Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, announced on Thursday that Washington was ending the talks, citing Hamas’ “lack of desire to reach a ceasefire.”
Additionally, Israel said that it had pulled its negotiators from Qatar, the location of the ceasefire negotiations.
Hamas said it had made “a sincere commitment to the success of the mediators’ efforts” to reach an agreement, but voiced confusion at the US stance.
The militant group added that its “constructive and positive” stance was welcomed by the mediators, Egypt and Qatar.
A 60-day truce that would see the release of 10 Israeli captives and a halt to the nation’s shelling of Palestinians in Gaza has been negotiated for months.
Hamas has maintained that a permanent ceasefire is what it wants.
Witkoff earlier said that the truce “will lead to a lasting peace in Gaza.”
But after the captives are released, Israeli authorities have told repeatedly that they want to return to the fighting and remove all Palestinians from Gaza.
Israel Katz, the minister of defence of the country has stated that the truce will be used to relocate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to a camp in southern Gaza to prepare for their eventual removal from the region.
Despite the ceasefire negotiations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated earlier this month during his visit to Washington DC that Israel “still has to finish the job in Gaza.”
According to legal experts, Trump’s February pledge to depopulate Gaza and transform the region into a “Riviera of the Middle East” would amount to ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity.
Advocates claim that Israel has used bombs, bulldozers, and shelling to systematically destroy huge portions of Gaza to render the area uninhabitable.
However, Netanyahu has maintained that the departure of Palestinians will be “voluntary.”
But human rights experts cautioned that when people are threatened with starvation and bombing, they truly have no choice.
Trump suggested on Thursday that there will be more violence in Gaza and that Israel would “going to have to fight”.
“They’re going to have to clean it up. You’re going to have to get rid of it,” he said.
Trump rejected France’s recognition of Palestine.
The US president’s remarks coincide with the deadly starvation that is still spreading throughout Gaza because of an Israeli blockade that prevents aid and other necessities from entering the region.
Even close allies of the US and Israel have condemned the Israeli-imposed starvation in Gaza.
The withholding of humanitarian aid to Gaza was denounced as a “violation of international law” by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday.
At the UN General Assembly in September, French President Emmanuel Macron also declared that his nation would recognise Palestine as a state.
Trump rejected his French counterpart’s statement, claiming it “doesn’t carry any weight,” prior to his departure for the UK on Friday.
“Here’s the good news: What he says doesn’t matter,” Trump said. “It’s not going to change anything.”