The United States expects Hamas terrorists “to abide by the deal they signed,” a State Department spokesperson told JNS on Sunday, after terror chief Khaled Mashaal appeared to reject key elements of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan a day earlier.
“Hamas has agreed to all 20 points of President Trump’s 20 Point Plan. That means Gaza will be fully demilitarized for the sake of Gazans,” the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to JNS on Sunday afternoon.
The statement came after Mashaal, during a speech at an anti-Israel summit in Istanbul on Saturday, rejected the U.S.- and U.N.-backed demands for Hamas to disarm and for the Strip to be demilitarized.
“Protecting the resistance project and its weapons is the right of our people to defend themselves,” the terrorist said, while calling for the destruction of the State of Israel.
“The resistance and its weapons are the honor and pride of the ummah [the Islamic nation],” Mashaal continued. “A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron.”
Mashaal in his taped speech also dismissed “all forms of guardianship, mandate and re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and all of Palestine,” rejecting another key part of Trump’s plan for Gaza, which received unanimous support of the U.N. Security Council on Nov. 17.
The resolution implemented a mandate for Washington and partners to launch an International Stabilization Force and a Board of Peace, which will serve as a transitional government authority for the coastal enclave.
The plan states that Hamas and other terrorists “agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form,” and that “all military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt.”
According to the Nov. 17 Security Council resolution, the International Stabilization Force will be responsible for the process of demilitarizing the Strip, including “the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of the military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.”
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) told JNS on Monday that the Israel Defense Forces should be allowed by the United States to “unleash the gates of hell” following Hamas’s truce violations.
“Better sooner than later, and the Israeli public understands this,” said Ben-Gvir, speaking after a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem.
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff and past member of the country’s War Cabinet, told JNS on Monday that he was unsure “exactly what the Americans will do.”
“However, I know it’s very important that we will end up dismantling Hamas in Gaza or in other places, as well as to include the jihadist-Islamic Palestinian groups, or to include Hezbollah in the northern arena and make sure there’s no terrorism ... in Syria,” he continued.
If radical terror organizations continue to exist and keep their weapons, there will be little chance for regional peace and normalization, he said.
“I came back from the States on Oct. 6, 2023, after talking with the Americans about potential normalization with Saudi [Arabia]. We saw where the reality went on Oct. 7,” added Gantz, referring to the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre on the country’s southern border.
“We must make sure it doesn’t happen again,” added the politician.
