Following the announcement that the Vice President would visit Israel, President Donald Trump once again cautioned Hamas, asserting that the U.S.-brokered Gaza truce must be maintained, and delivered another unequivocal warning to the terrorist organization.
During a White House meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday, Trump stated to reporters, “We’re going to eradicate them. If we have to, they’ll be eradicated. And they know that,” while highlighting the broad endorsement for the agreement—”59 countries that agreed to the deal”—and insisting that the ceasefire remains in effect, warning that any renewed violence would trigger decisive action.
While the specifics of Vance’s trip to Israel have yet to be disclosed, Washington’s diplomatic efforts are extending beyond Jerusalem, as U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were expected to travel from Israel to Egypt for talks, underscoring an endeavor to move beyond preserving the ceasefire towards negotiating the more complex subsequent phase.
At Monday’s meeting with the Australian Prime Minister, when a reporter inquired if the U.S. would deploy ground troops, Trump indicated that his administration does not intend to deploy troops, and that other nations—including Israel itself—could intervene if necessary.
“We don’t need to, because we have many countries, as you know, signed on to this deal,” he stated. “We’ve had countries calling me when they saw some of the killing with Hamas, saying we’d love to go in and take care of the situation ourselves. In addition, you have Israel — they would go in, in two minutes. If I asked him to go in, I could tell him, go in and take care of it. But right now, we haven’t said that. We’re going to give it a little chance, and hopefully there will be a little less violence.”
He further issued a blunt warning about and support. “But right now, you know, they’re violent people. Hamas has been very violent, but they don’t have the backing of Iran anymore… They have to be good, and if they’re not good, they’ll be eradicated — because absolutely we can, and we have the capacity to do so.”
These remarks were made as senior U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Israeli leaders to shore up the fragile, Trump-brokered, 20-step ceasefire plan following a weekend flare-up. Hamas terrorists killed two Israeli soldiers, which led to Israeli strikes against the militant group. Despite the violence, both and Hamas publicly reaffirmed their commitment to the truce.
On the ground, the IDF took possession of the coffin of another deceased hostage. A joint IDF–ISA statement urged the public to “act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification, which will first be provided to the families,” adding that, “Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages.” Israeli officials believe Hamas could immediately hand over six more bodies out of the 15 still thought to be in Gaza, although some remains might be impossible to retrieve amidst widespread devastation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing the Knesset, adopted a resolute stance while emphasizing the close coordination between the U.S. and Israel. He warned that the conflict was far from over and stated that violations would exact a “very heavy price,” simultaneously commending the “unprecedented closeness” with Washington.
In a separate development, the IDF announced that Southern Command troops have commenced marking a ‘yellow line’ inside Gaza—comprising 3.5-meter concrete barriers topped by yellow poles placed roughly every 200 meters—to establish “tactical clarity on the ground” as part of the ceasefire arrangement. The military indicated that this marking process would persist “in the coming period” as forces work to eliminate threats and protect Israeli civilians.