Donald Trump takes U-turn, says he will not send US troops to Gaza after ‘kill’ warning to Hamas

US President Donald Trump ruled out sending US troops to Gaza after issuing a stern warning to “kill” Hamas members.

Donald Trump clarified that American troops would not enter Gaza after he posted on Truth Social earlier on Thursday, saying that if Hamas continued to kill people, “we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.”

Later that day, speaking to reporters, Trump said, "I didn’t say who would go in, but somebody will go in. It's not going to be us. We won't have to. There are people very close, very nearby, that will go in. They'll do the trick very easily. But under our auspices," reported ABC.

In his Truth Social post, Trump wrote, “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. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

According to ABC, Trump said US troops would not be going into Gaza. He informed reporters on Thursday (local time), "I didn’t say who would go in, but somebody will go in. It's not going to be us. We won't have to. There are people very close, very nearby, that will go in. They'll do the trick very easily. But under our auspices."

Israel threatens to resume war if Hamas fails to comply with Trump’s Gaza deal

Meanwhile, Israel has warned it will restart military operations in Gaza if Hamas fails to comply with all the steps mentioned in Trump’s peace plan, according to Bloomberg.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz directed the military to get ready for the “complete defeat of Hamas in Gaza” should the group, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by both the US and the EU, not disarm and return the bodies of deceased hostages it is holding.

Katz stated, “If Hamas refuses to uphold the agreement, Israel, in coordination with the US, will return to fighting and act to achieve the total defeat of Hamas."

“We want the weapons to be given up, sacrificed. And they’ve agreed to do it. Now they have to do it. And if they don’t do it, we’ll do it,” Trump echoed those statements, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Hamas returned all 20 living hostages to Israel on Monday and has so far sent the remains of seven deceased hostages, with 21 still unaccounted for.

According to the Israeli army, one of the bodies brought back to Israel was later found not to belong to a hostage. Hamas said it would send two more bodies on Wednesday night, but its military wing claimed it has released all the Israeli hostage remains currently within its reach, and that “extensive efforts and special equipment” are required to recover the rest.

Israel has already reduced the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, attributing the disruption of Trump’s peace plan to Hamas’s slow pace in returning Israeli remains. A Palestinian relief organisation has warned that the volume and distribution of aid remain inadequate for the population in need.

Around 800 aid trucks passed through the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim border crossings between Israel and Gaza on Sunday, an increase from the usual 300 per day, but still below the necessary amount, according to Amjad Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network.

He stated, "Gaza needs 1,000 trucks daily, and all six border crossings must open to meet escalating humanitarian needs."

Shawa noted that no aid entered on Monday, the day Hamas released the last of the living hostages taken during the October 7, 2023 attacks that sparked the war.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)