President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday he’s not confident that Israel’s cease-fire deal with the Hamas terrorist group will hold through all three phases.
“It’s not our war. It is their war. I am not confident. But I think they’re very weakened on the other side,” he said in response to a question in the Oval Office while signing orders in the first hours of his presidency.
Asked about the future governance of the Gaza Strip, the president said he believed “you certainly can’t have the people that were there,” in an apparent reference to the Iranian-backed Hamas terror organization.
“Most of them are dead, by the way, right?” continued Trump. “But they didn’t exactly run it well. Run viciously and badly. You can’t have that.”
Gaza must be rebuilt “in a different way,” he continued.
“I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is—it’s really got to be rebuilt in a different way,” he said. “It’s a phenomenal location. On the sea, the best weather. You know, everything is good. It’s like some beautiful things could be done with it.”
On Sunday, three Israeli women taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and held captive in Gaza for 471 days were freed as part of the first phase of the US-brokered agreement with Hamas.
Trump hailed the deal on Sunday as a “first step toward lasting peace in the Middle East,” crediting his incoming Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, with pushing the deal through.
“Our incoming administration has achieved all of this in the Middle East in less than three months without being president. We’ve achieved more without being president than they’ve achieved in four years with being president,” Trump said at a pre-inauguration rally in Washington, D.C.
Over the weekend, Trump warned in an interview with NBC that the cease-fire with Hamas in Gaza “better hold,” or “all hell will break out.”
Trump claimed he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Just keep doing what you have to do. You have to have—this has to end. We want it to end, but to keep doing what has to be done.”
Jerusalem has said that 25 of the 33 people on the list of hostages to be returned in the first stage remain alive. Ninety-four hostages are still held in Gaza, at least one-third of whom are believed to be dead.
Talks on the second phase will begin 16 days after the implementation. The first stage spans 42 days. The Gaza deal is expected to conclude with the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent truce and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Witkoff may visit the Gaza Strip in an effort to keep the cease-fire, he confirmed in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News on Monday.
“I think the execution of the agreement was tough; it is going to be the implementation of the agreement that will be, perhaps, more difficult,” said Witkoff. “So going to the Gaza Strip is making sure that what we intend to do here, at the Netzarim line and the Philadelphi Corridor, that what we intend to do gets implemented in the correct way.”
The Middle East envoy confirmed that the deal pushed by the incoming administration was similar to the one proposed by former President Joe Biden in May 2024. “It follows it almost exactly,” he told Channel 12 News. “When we came into the negotiation, we were operating under that agreement.”
“We needed to create the incentives for both parties to push forward and get that deal done,” the presidential envoy said. Asked to elaborate on possible US incentives provided for Jerusalem to back the deal, Witkoff stated, “The incentives were to get these people home.”
Senior Hamas terrorist Musa Abu Marzouk told The New York Times on Sunday that the Islamist group was ready for “a dialogue” and “achieving understandings on everything” following Trump’s inauguration.
Marzouk said Hamas was prepared to welcome Witkoff to the coastal enclave and vowed that the US-designated terror group would even provide representatives of the Trump administration with protection.
“He can come and see the people and try to understand their feelings and wishes so that the American position can be based on the interests of all the parties, and not only one party,” said Marzouk.
