NEW YORK, October 15. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) could be back in Gaza at the drop of a hat if US President Donald Trump sees that Hamas is not complying his peace plan, Trump said.
"Israel will return to those streets as soon as I say the word. If Israel could go in and knock the crap of them, they’d do that," the American leader said in a telephone interview wth CNN, when asked what would happen if Hamas refused to lay down its arms.
Trump said he "had to hold back" the Israeli authorities and the military.
On September 29, the White House released the US President's "comprehensive plan" aimed at resolving the conflict in the Gaza Strip. The 20-paragraph document provides for the introduction of temporary external control in the Palestinian enclave and the deployment of an international stabilization force there. On October 9, Trump said that Israel and Hamas had struck an agreement on the first stage of the peace plan.
On Monday, a peace summit was held in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh, which was convened on the occasion of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of all Israeli hostages held there. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Trump and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a final ceasefire agreement in the Palestinian enclave there. According to al-Sisi's office, the summit participants called for the implementation of the next stages of Trump's plan, including governance, infrastructure rehabilitation and a political settlement.