Top Trump official says US will back renewed Israeli offensive in Gaza if needed

National security adviser pick Mike Waltz praises hostage-ceasefire deal but says Hamas must be destroyed, claims all hostages would have died if not for incoming US president

US Rep. Michael Waltz walks into the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2025. (Kayla Bartkowski/ Getty Images via AFP)
US Rep. Michael Waltz walks into the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2025. (Kayla Bartkowski/ Getty Images via AFP)

US President-elect Donald Trump’s top national security nominee has said the US will back Israel if it needs to reenter Gaza, while speaking out in support of a ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas and crediting his future boss with its apparent success.

Florida Rep. Mike Waltz, who is in line to become the White House’s national security adviser, also said Washington would not impose curbs on arms supplies to Israel, while criticizing the outgoing administration for trying to hold Israel back.

Speaking to Fox News Wednesday evening, Waltz praised the announcement of a deal between Israel and Hamas that will gradually end fighting in Gaza and see the remaining hostages released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, while seeking to assuage fears that the terror group could reconstitute and rearm.

“We’ve made it very clear to the Israelis, and I want the people of Israel to hear me on this: If they need to go back in, we’re with them,” he said. “If Hamas doesn’t live up to the terms of this agreement, we are with them.”

While Hamas has demanded a complete end to the war, Israel says it must retain the ability to ensure Hamas does not become a major threat again. The staged nature of the deal will leave Israeli troops in parts of Gaza for the first month and a half, and fighting could resume if no agreement is reached on implementing the second and third phases.

“Hamas is not going to continue as a military entity and it’s certainly not going to govern Gaza,” Waltz promised.

He said he understood that “about 25” of the 33 hostages to be released in the first tranche were still alive.

“I’m convinced they all would have died if President Trump didn’t come in and say ‘get them out,'” Waltz said, crediting a “Trump effect” with getting the deal done.

A billboard calling for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas along with a portrait of US President-elect Donald Trump hangs on a building near a protest by right-wing Israelis rejecting a potential deal with Hamas, in Jerusalem, on January 13, 2025. (Photo by Menahem Kahana / AFP)

“Clearly, the entire world recognizes that this was the Trump effect. We’re hearing that from Arab leaders that were involved, we’re hearing that from the Israelis that were involved,” he said.

“Hamas knew… they had no choice and they believed President Trump when he said there would be all hell to pay, and any deal that was on the table would just get worse once he was in office,” he added, noting the terror group had also been isolated by the loss of fellow Iranian allies like Hezbollah.

The Republican predicted that hostages would likely first be released on January 20, comparing the timing to American hostages held in Iran released moments after former US president Ronald Reagan replaced Jimmy Carter at the White House in 1980.

“We will see hostages walking out and hugging their families as President Trump is being sworn in as the next president of the United States,” he said. “This is in my view, and the world’s view, a Reagan moment because they understood the consequences if they didn’t get this done.”

Palestinians inspect damaged tents for displaced people following an Israeli strike in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on January 14, 2025. (Ali Hassan/Flash90)

After being elected, Trump repeatedly threatened that there would be “hell to pay” if no deal was reached by the time he took office. While he never elaborated on the threat, many assumed it would involve the removal of US demands to curb fighting in certain areas and the end of US pressure for Israel to increase humanitarian aid flowing into the Strip.

Joe Biden’s administration played a major role in helping shepherd talks and nearly got to a deal several times, but was unable to reach a final agreement. While Biden officials publicly cited the removal of Hezbollah from the battlefield in autumn 2024 as a needle-mover, privately, some have pointed to the fact that Trump had more leverage over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu than did Biden.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) meets US President-elect Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff at his office in Jerusalem, January 11, 2025. (Prime Minister’s Office Spokesperson)

Officials familiar with the matter reported that Trump envoy Steve Witkoff leaned heavily on the Israeli premier to pave the way for the breakthrough in talks.

Waltz, a Trump loyalist and hawk on Israel and Iran, indicated in a December interview that the US under Trump would not be willing to negotiate for the release of Americans held captive, while also indicating that Hamas could survive under the terms of a hostage release deal, a position that contradicts Israel’s stance.

“Hamas has every exit blocked except one, and that’s to release our hostages if you want to live,” he said at the time.

Palestinians celebrate the imminent announcement of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, central Gaza Strip, January 15, 2025. (AP/(AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Several dual American-Israeli citizens are believed to be among the hostages set to be freed in the first stage of the deal.

In a podcast interview Tuesday, Waltz said the incoming administration’s relationship with Israel would be much more supportive than the Biden administration.

“I think we’re in a very good place because the Israeli government didn’t listen sometimes to the not-so-good advice coming out of this administration,” Waltz told Dan Senor.

Visitors at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. January 13, 2025. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

“And now we are where we are, where Iran is in the worst position it’s been. And that’s not to say this administration didn’t help with shooting down the missiles, [or that] they didn’t help with arms, but they also tapped the brakes as well in a way that I just did not find rational,” Waltz added.

Asked if the US will stop restricting weapons supplies as the Biden administration did by withholding the supply of 2,000-pound bombs, Waltz replied: “You’re not going to see this administration tapping the brakes to make sure Israel can arm itself.”

According to Waltz, the US will begin pushing for Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel once the war ends. He told Senor jumpstarting the process was a “huge priority.”

Commuters drive past a billboard in Tehran depicting missiles strikes on Jerusalem and declaring ‘Israel must be wiped off the face of the Earth,’ covering the facade of a building in Tehran on October 26, 2024. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

The lawmaker alleged that previous bids to broker a deal had been sabotaged by Iran, which he said “lit the fuse” for Hamas to carry out the October 7, 2023, massacre once it saw Jerusalem and Riyadh moving closer to a treaty.

“But where is Iran today? Hezbollah is decimated, its sword of Damocles over Israel, Hamas, is decimated, Assad has fallen, one of Iran’s biggest proxies, and Iran, the regime, is literally naked militarily with its air defenses down,” he told Fox News. “That is a very different situation that we are now going to get back to.”

“We needed to get our people out, we need to destroy Hamas as a military terrorist organization and we 100 percent support that,” he said, “and then we can get back to crafting peace deals in the Middle East.”

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