Palestinian militant group Hamas has issued a statement urging US President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to make “stop the war” in Gaza a priority.
The statement comes amid reports that Trump recently advised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conclude the military conflict before his inauguration on January 20, following his electoral victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
“In light of the initial results showing Donald Trump winning in the U.S. presidential elections,” Hamas responded to the election results, and they expect Trump to “listen to the voices that have been raised by the U.S. public for more than a year regarding the [Israeli] aggression on the Gaza Strip.”
Times of Israel reported that Trump’s remarks urging an end to the conflict were reportedly first shared with Netanyahu during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort, in July.
The statement from Hamas outlined several specific demands from the US to “work seriously to stop the war of genocide and aggression against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”
Hamas request to cease the ‘military support’ to Israel
The militant group also requested an end to “the aggression against the brotherly Lebanese people” and asked the US to cease providing “military support and political cover to the Zionist entity.” Hamas also urged Trump’s administration to recognize what they refer to as the “legitimate rights of our people.”
Hamas emphasized its intention to continue resisting what it considers the “hateful [Israeli] occupation,” stating that it would not accept any solutions that compromise Palestinian rights to “freedom, independence, self-determination, and the establishment of their independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” aligning with Hamas’s longstanding position on Palestinian sovereignty and its opposition to Israel’s presence in territories claimed by Palestinians.
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The policy of the current administration of the United States of America under the presidency of Joe Biden alongside VP Harris has been fairly pro-Israeli; the White House has, in the past, however, issued demarches against some actions of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In October, President Biden urged a ceasefire just before the IDF commenced operations in Lebanon.
