The US State Department on Saturday said it had “credible reports” of Hamas planning an attack on the civilians in Palestine, the Associated Press reported.
The department said that if such an attack does take place, it would “constitute a direct and grave violation” of the ceasefire agreement forged between Israel and Hamas by US President Donald Trump.
“Should Hamas proceed with this attack, measures will be taken to protect the people of Gaza and preserve the integrity of the ceasefire,” the department said in a statement.
However, the state department did not elaborate on the reports or the details about the alleged attack.
Trump had earlier called on Hamas to disarm and urged the returning of all Gaza hostage bodies to Israel. “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,” the US President had warned.
However, Trump later clarified that US forces would not carry out the threat, saying there were “people very close, very nearby that will go in and they’ll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.”
The development comes even as Israel refused to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, after the country’s foreign minister had said it was likely to be done on Sunday.
Israel said that the opening of the Rafah crossing would now depend on whether Hamas fulfills the ceasefire condition of returning the mortal remains of all 28 deceased Israeli hostages.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the Gaza war would not end till the second phase of the ceasefire, which involving Hamas disarming, is completed.
“Phase B also involves the disarming of Hamas — or more precisely, the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, following the stripping of Hamas of its weapons,” Netanyahu said.
He added that when that is “successfully completed”, the war would end “hopefully in an easy way, but if not, in a hard way.”
