October 15, 2025 - 1:00pm
US President Donald Trump has said that Hamas executions of dissenters in Gaza “didn’t bother me much”.
On Tuesday, videos surfaced showing Hamas members carrying out executions of blindfolded men by firing squad. The identities of the dead have not been made public by the group, but it is believed that much of the intra-Palestinian violence is between Hamas and the Dormush clan. “They did take out a couple of gangs that were very bad,” Trump told reporters yesterday evening, “and they killed a number of gang members.”
He added: “That didn’t bother me much, to be honest with you. That’s okay. It’s a couple of very bad gangs. It’s no different than other countries like Venezuela [that have] sent their gangs [into the US].”
The President’s comments came after the return of all surviving Israeli hostages on Monday and the retreat of the IDF from much of Gaza as part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal. Israel has today threatened to block humanitarian aid as a result of Hamas’s slow return of the remains of 28 Israeli hostages. The hostages’ families have identified three of the four bodies that were returned yesterday.
On Sunday, Trump was asked by reporters about Hamas’s position in post-war Gaza and reports that the group had been cracking down on dissent in the Strip. “They do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time,” he said. Trump did not clarify what Hamas was given permission to do or for how long.
Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS that “we agreed to give peace a chance,” but “first, Hamas has to give up its arms.” He added: “You want to make sure that there are no weapons factories inside Gaza. There’s no smuggling of weapons into Gaza. That’s demilitarisation.” Hamas has said it will not disarm.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday said the ceasefire offered “fragile hope”. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has called for strict international oversight of Gaza during its transitional period. “I am still worried because we know how things work with terrorist groups,” Macron told a reporter when asked about Hamas’s control of Gaza. “You can’t dismantle a terrorist group with thousands of fighters, with all these tunnels and weapons, overnight.”
Paraphrasing Trump, Netanyahu said if Hamas refuses to disarm, “all hell breaks loose.” He qualified: “Well, I hope it doesn’t [..] I hope we can do this peacefully. We’re certainly ready to do so.” The strength of the ceasefire has already been tested, with medical sources alleging to Al Jazeera that Israel killed five Palestinians in Gaza City yesterday.
When asked whether Hamas would be disarmed — as is a stipulation of his 20-point peace plan for Gaza — Trump said that “if they don’t disarm, we will disarm them and it will happen quickly and perhaps violently”. But the US President added, “they will disarm.”
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe