Trump National Security Pick Says Israel Has Green Light to Keep Attacking Gaza

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's pick to serve as national security adviser said late Wednesday that the incoming administration will support future Israeli attacks on Gaza even as Trump hailed the tenuous new cease-fire and hostage-release agreement as a signal "to the entire world that my administration would seek peace."

In an appearance on Fox News late Wednesday after the agreement was announced, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) said that "we've made it very clear to the Israelis, and I want the people of Israel to hear me on this: If they need to go back in [to Gaza], we're with them."

"Hamas is not going to continue as a military entity and it's certainly not going to govern Gaza," Waltz added.

The national security adviser nominee expressed a similar position in a podcast appearance prior to the announcement of the cease-fire deal, which is currently in jeopardy as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Hamas of reneging on the terms of the agreement—a claim Hamas has rejected.

Asked whether a cease-fire agreement would mean "the war is over," Waltz said, "Hamas would like to believe that."

"But we've been clear that Gaza has to be fully demilitarized, Hamas has to be destroyed to the point that it cannot reconstitute, and that Israel has every right to fully protect itself," he added. "All of those objectives are still very much in place."

"We need to get our people out," Waltz continued, "and then we need to achieve those objectives in this war."

Drop Site's Jeremy Scahill noted that the approach Waltz laid out mirrors "a plan Netanyahu has hinted at: Israel views this deal as only one phase to get the Israeli and U.S. hostages out."

Last month, Netanyahu said that Israeli forces would "return to fighting" once hostages are freed.

"There is no point in pretending otherwise," said Netanyahu, "because returning to fighting is needed in order to complete the goals of the war."

Under the first phase of the deal announced Wednesday, a six-week cease-fire would begin as soon as Sunday and 33 hostages would be freed in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees. The second and third stages of the deal are contingent upon negotiations that will take place during the first.

The text also stipulates the "withdrawal of Israeli forces eastwards from densely populated areas along the borders of the Gaza Strip" and a reduction of Israeli troop presence in the Philadelphi corridor—an issue that has repeatedly emerged as a sticking point in cease-fire negotiations.

The agreement states that "the Israeli side will gradually reduce the forces in the corridor area during stage 1 based on the accompanying maps and the agreement between both sides."

"After the last hostage release of stage one, on day 42, the Israeli forces will begin their withdrawal and complete it no later than day 50," the text continues.

But Netanyahu's office insisted Thursday that the same number of forces would remain in the corridor during the deal's first phase—a position that critics said runs counter to the agreement.

While Trump and his allies celebrated the announced agreement as a master stroke of dealmaking and aid groups voiced hope for some reprieve for devastated Palestinians in Gaza, Netanyahu's spokesman told The New York Times in a text message that "there isn't any deal at the moment."

Israel's cabinet was expected to vote on the deal Thursday, but Netanyahu delayed the meeting and accused Hamas of trying to "extort last-minute concessions."

Hamas officials denied the charge, saying they are committed to the agreed-upon text.

Ruby Chen, the father of a 19-year-old Israeli-American soldier who was taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023, suggested Thursday that Netanyahu "might be looking to get out of" the deal as he faces backlash from far-right members of his coalition.

Citing unnamed sources, The Washington Post reported Thursday that "behind closed doors, Netanyahu has been promising his far-right allies that the war could resume after the first, 42-day phase of the cease-fire, when Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners."

Paul Pillar, a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote Thursday that "there remains the possibility that a renewed war in Gaza will, beginning a few weeks from now, become a problem for Trump just as it was for Biden."

"But two main factors will incline President Trump not to exert any pressure on the Israeli government to turn away from renewing its devastation and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip," Pillar predicted. "One is Trump's relationship with his domestic evangelical political base, with its unconditional support for most anything Israel does. The other is that his ally Netanyahu has done him a big favor with his handling of the ceasefire negotiations, and now Trump owes Netanyahu favors in return."

According to one Israeli report, Trump offered Netanyahu a "gift bag" of concessions in exchange for accepting a pre-inauguration cease-fire deal, including sanctions relief for violent Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank.