US warns of imminent Hamas ‘attack on Palestinian civilians,’ says it would violate truce

The US State Department issued a rare weekend statement Saturday, saying it had informed fellow mediating countries Qatar, Turkey and Egypt of a “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.”

“This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and undermine the significant progress achieved through mediation efforts,” the State Department said.

It didn’t elaborate on the nature of the Hamas attack, but it came after over a week in which Hamas fighters reportedly executed dozens of members of rival clans along with other Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.

“The guarantors demand Hamas uphold its obligations under the ceasefire terms,” the State Department statement read.

It was unclear how Hamas attacks on fellow Palestinians would violate the ceasefire, given that the agreement is widely understood to be aimed at preventing attacks between Israel and Hamas. The portions of the agreement that have been leaked to the press do not explicitly touch on a potential Hamas crackdown on Gazan civilians.

Nonetheless, the State Department statement warned that “should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire.”

On Wednesday, a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump told reporters that the US and Israel were working to set up safe zones inside IDF-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip to which Palestinians seeking to flee Hamas retribution could flee. Israel has yet to publicly confirm the initiative.

“The United States and the other guarantors remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring the safety of civilians, maintaining calm on the ground, and advancing peace and prosperity for the people of Gaza and the region as a whole,” the State Department statement added.

The statement represented the latest hardening of the US position regarding the Hamas crackdown throughout Gaza, which began once the ceasefire went into place earlier this month.

Trump claimed on Tuesday that he had given Hamas “approval for a period of time” to carry out the killings, asserting that the terror organization was targeting some “very bad gangs.”

By Wednesday, though, the commander of US forces in the Middle East called on Hamas to immediately stop attacks on “innocent Palestinian civilians” and begin “disarming without delay”

Hours later, Trump told CNN he was doing “more research on it… It could be gangs plus.”

On Thursday, he 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.”

While Trump spoke in “we” terms when talking about who would carry out his threat against Hamas, he has in the past clarified that he is referring to Israel regarding such retribution and that US troops will not be needed in Gaza, which he reiterated later Thursday.

“Somebody will go in” to Gaza, he said in response to a reporter’s question, but “it’s not going to be us.”

“We won’t have to enter” the Strip, Trump continued. “There are people very nearby that will go in, they’ll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.”