Trump says Hamas don’t want Gaza ceasefire deal and will be ‘hunted down’
US President Donald Trump has said Hamas do not want to make a Gaza ceasefire deal and he believes the group’s leaders will be “hunted down”.
It comes after the US’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff cut short indirect talks with the miitant group this week in Doha and as Benjamin Netanhayu says Israel will consider “alternative options” to achieve its aims of bringing the hostages home and ending Hamas rule in the territory.
Meanwhile, a Hamas official accused the US negotiating team of distoring reality, and international aid organisations say mass hunger has now arrived among Gaza’s 2.2 million people.
US President Donald Trump has said Hamas do not want a ceasefire deal in Gaza and that he believes the militant group’s leaders will now be “hunted down”.
It comes a day after Steve Witkoff, the US envoy to the Middle East, cut short indirect talks with the Palestinian militant group in Doha and amid growing international concern over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel and its allies will pursue “alternative options” to bring the remaining October 7 hostages home from Gaza and end Hamas rule in the territory, sparking worry that the US and Israel have abandoned ceasefire talks
“It was too bad. Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die,” Mr Trump told reporters, as he prepared to fly to the UK.
“And it’s very bad. And it got to be to a point where you’re going to have to finish the job.”
Referring to Hamas’s leaders, the president added: “I think they will be hunted down.”
The remarks appeared to leave little to no room to resume negotiations to pause the fighting, at a time when international concern is mounting over worsening hunger in war-shattered Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu had said his government was still seeking a deal, despite recalling negotiators from Qatar hours after Hamas submitted its response to a truce proposal.
Sources initially said on Thursday that the Israeli withdrawal was only for consultations and did not necessarily mean the talks had reached a crisis.
But Mr Netanyahu’s remarks suggested Israel’s position had hardened overnight.
Responding to Mr Witkoff blaming Hamas for the impasse, Mr Netanyahu posted on X: “Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff got it right.
“Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal. Together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region.”
A Hamas official on Friday accused Mr Witkoff of reneging on Washington’s positions and distorting reality after he announced America’s withdrawal.
“The negative statements of the US envoy Witkoff run completely counter to the context in which the last negotiations were held, and he is perfectly aware of this, but they come to serve the Israeli position,” said Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim, in an interview with AFP.
Mr Naim also said that the talks had been constructive, and criticised Mr Witkoff’s remarks as aimed at exerting pressure on Israel’s behalf.
France’s declaration ‘doesn’t carry weight’, says Trump
The proposed ceasefire would suspend fighting for 60 days, allow more aid into Gaza, and free some of the 50 remaining hostages held by militants in return for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
It has been held up by disagreement over how far Israel should withdraw its troops and the future beyond the 60 days if no permanent agreement is reached.
Mr Trump also reacted to French President Emmanuel Macron announcing that France would be the first major Western power to recognise an independent Palestinian state.
“He’s [Macron] a very good guy, I like him, but that statement doesn’t carry weight,” Mr Trump said.
“What he says doesn’t matter,” he added. “It’s not going to change anything.”
Mr Netanyahu called the decision a “reward for terrorism”.
Western countries have been committed for decades to an eventual independent Palestinian state but have long said it should arise out of a negotiated peace process.
Europe’s two other big powers, Britain and Germany, made clear there were no plans to act on Palestinian statehood right away.
Gaza medical authorities said nine more Palestinians had died over the past 24 hours from malnutrition or starvation. Dozens have died in the past few weeks as hunger worsens.
An Israeli official said on Friday that aid drops would resume soon.
“Humanitarian aid air drops on the Gaza Strip will resume in the upcoming days. They will be managed by the UAE and Jordan,” the official told AFP.
International aid organisations say mass hunger has now arrived among Gaza’s 2.2 million people, with stocks running out after Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March, then reopened it in May but with new restrictions.
On Friday, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany said the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip “must end now”.
“We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid and urgently allow the UN and humanitarian NGOs to carry out their work in order to take action against starvation,” they said in a joint statement released by Berlin.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that “the most basic needs of the civilian population, including access to water and food, must be met without any further delay”.
“Withholding essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable,” they said.
“Israel must uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
Israel said it has let enough food into Gaza and accused the United Nations of failing to distribute it, in what the Israeli foreign ministry called on Friday “a deliberate ploy to defame Israel”.
The UN says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions.
UN agencies said on Friday that supplies were running out in Gaza of specialised therapeutic food to save the lives of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The ceasefire talks have been accompanied by continuing Israeli offensives on the ground.
Palestinian health officials said Israeli air strikes and gunfire had killed at least 21 people across the enclave on Friday, including five killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns near the border, killing some 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages on October 7, 2023.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, health officials there say, and reduced much of the enclave to ruins.
Reuters/AFP