The Trump administration pressured Israel on Sunday not to withdraw from a fragile truce with the Hamas terror organization, a senior US official said, even after Hamas cells carried out attacks on Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday morning, three separate violations of the Gaza ceasefire were reported: sniper attacks on an IDF position in eastern Gaza, an infiltration attempt by Hamas terrorists in northern Gaza, and a deadly missile attack on an IDF armored personnel carrier in southern Gaza.
After the attacks, one of which left two soldiers dead and three wounded, the Trump administration rushed to save the Gaza truce from collapsing, pressing Israel to limit its reprisals.
Both sides, a Trump administration official added, remain committed to the ceasefire, with Israel and Hamas hesitant to escalate the conflict back into a “full-scale war.”
Another Trump administration official said the future of the ceasefire was far from certain and that its fate would likely be decided in the next month.
It’s understood that Hamas is far from a trustworthy entity and these latest terrorist attacks come as no surprise. Hamas has shown it is not genuinely committed to the ceasefire and through its executions of “collaborators” has asserted its control of the strip. Even if it was a splinter group responsible for the deaths of the two IDF soldiers, the attacks must be stopped. It remains to be seen whether Hamas will implement measures to ensure that their obligations under the ceasefire agreement are upheld.