US President Donald Trump said Monday he was “not confident” the Gaza ceasefire would last, despite claiming credit for brokering the agreement between Israel and Hamas.
“I’m not confident. It’s not our war, it’s their war,” he said from the Oval Office, when asked by a reporter whether the ceasefire would hold and last through three planned phases. “I looked at a picture of Gaza – Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is, it’s really, it’s got to be rebuilt in a different way.”
The American president’s pessimism is not unique. There is significant pressure to restart the Gaza war from extremist right-wing Israeli politicians, who believe the ceasefire was a capitulation to Hamas.
Itamar Ben-Gvir of Israel’s Jewish Power party this week resigned as national security minister, further narrowing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s slim parliamentary majority. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to do the same if Netanyahu does not break the ceasefire once an initial 42-day phase is complete.
“I demanded – and received – a commitment from Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel will return to the battlefield to eliminate Hamas and eradicate this threat once and for all,” Smotrich said in a statement on Monday.
Netanyahu, for his part, said on Sunday night that “both President Trump and President Biden gave full backing to Israel’s right to return to fighting, if Israel comes to the conclusion that negotiations on Phase B are futile. I really appreciate it.”
Israeli media has been rife with speculation this week that those commitments to potentially restart the war will doom negotiations on phase two of the deal, which are due to begin on February 4. Phase two, if it goes into effect, would see the complete withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza.
Trump’s pessimism about the ceasefire stood in contrast to the pledge made just hours earlier, during his inaugural address, that he would “measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end.”
Among the slew of executive orders he signed upon taking office was a decision to rescind sanctions that the Biden administration had against Israeli settlers allegedly responsible for deadly violence in the occupied West Bank.
Smotrich was quick to thank Trump on taking office, and said he looked forward to “continued fruitful cooperation to bolster our national security, expand settlement throughout all parts of the Land of Israel, and strengthen Israel’s standing in the world.”
The finance minister is among those who has argued strenuously for Israel to re-establish Jewish settlements in Gaza, which were abandoned under an Israeli order in 2005. Smotrich was briefly arrested – though never charged – in connection with protests he staged in opposition to that withdrawal at the time.
It is unclear what Trump makes of that effort. But when asked on Monday who should govern Gaza, Trump said “you certainly can’t have the people that were there,” apparently referring to Hamas. “Most of them are dead, by the way, right? Most of them are dead. But they didn’t exactly run it well. It was run viciously and badly. So you can’t have that.”
The American president, in response to a question, also said that he “might” be able to have a role in rebuilding the enclave, praising it as having a “phenomenal location, on the sea” and “the best weather.”
The comments echo remarks made by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in February 2024 when Kushner called the waterfront property in Gaza “very valuable” and suggested Israel should move Palestinians out of Gaza and “clean it up.”
