Trump ramped up his rhetoric against Hamas during a White House press briefing

As announced, Vice President No The Jedi Ones Visiting Israel, President Donald Trump has once again warned Hamas that it must abide by the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, delivering another clear warning to the terror group.

“We’re going to destroy them. If we have to, they’re going to be destroyed. And they know it,” Trump warned during a White House meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Monday.

While details of Vance’s visit to Israel have not yet been announced, Washington’s diplomacy is expanding beyond Jerusalem, as US ambassadors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to travel from Israel to Egypt for talks. Representative of HamasUnderscoring efforts to move away from maintaining the ceasefire towards the next phase of negotiations.

Israel says Hamas violated the ceasefire by carrying out ‘several attacks’ that prompted the IDF response

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former National Security Adviser Michael Waltz during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

In a meeting with the Australian PM on Monday, Trump was asked by a reporter if the US would keep boots on the ground, Trump said his administration did not plan to deploy troops and that other countries – and Israel itself – could take action if necessary.

“We don’t need it, because we have many countries, as you know, that have signed this agreement,” he said. “We’ve had countries call me when they saw some killing with Hamas and say we’d love to go in and handle the situation. Plus, you have Israel — they’re going to go in in two minutes. If I told him to go in, I could tell him, go in and take care of it. But right now, we haven’t said that. We’re going to do a little bit of violence and hopefully a little bit of violence.

He added a clear caveat Hamas’ capacity and support. “But right now, you know, they’re violent people. Hamas is very violent, but they don’t have the support of Iran anymore… They have to be good, and if they’re not good, they’re going to be destroyed — because we can and we have the ability to do that.”

The comments came as senior US ambassadors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Israeli leaders to hammer out a fragile, Trump-brokered, 20-step ceasefire plan that erupted over the weekend. Hamas terrorists killed two Israeli soldiers, prompting Israeli attacks on the terrorist group. Despite the violence, both Israel And Hamas publicly returned the ceasefire.

President Donald Trump, left, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shake hands outside the West Wing of the White House on October 20, 2025 in Washington. (via Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg Getty Images)

Hamas accepts Trump peace plan ending 2-year war in Gaza, returns hostages

On the ground, the IDF seized the coffin of another dead hostage. A joint IDF-ISA statement asked the public to “behave with sensitivity and wait for official recognition, which will be provided to the families first,” adding, “Hamas must uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all dead hostages.” Israeli officials say Hamas may immediately hand over another six of the 15 bodies still believed to be in Gaza, although some remains are impossible to retrieve amid the mass destruction.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking in the Knesset, struck a hard line while emphasizing closer US-Israeli coordination. He warned that the battle was far from over and that a breach would have a “very high price” while praising the “unprecedented closeness” with Washington.

On October 13, 2025, a group of Hamas terrorists were freed in Deir-el-Balah, central Gaza, with 20 living Israeli hostages. (Photo by TPS-IL)

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Separately, the IDF said forces of the Southern Command had begun marking the so-called yellow lines inside Gaza – 3.5-meter concrete barriers with yellow poles placed about 200 meters apart – to establish “tactical clarity on the ground” as part of a cease-fire arrangement. The military said the marking would continue “for the foreseeable future” as the military worked to eliminate threats and protect Israeli civilians.