US President Donald Trump "fully supports" Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to reporters.
Levitt was asked in a briefing to journalists if Trump is seeking to restore the ceasefire in Gaza and replied, “The president made it very clear to Hamas that if they did not release all of the hostages, there would be all hell to pay. Unfortunately, Hamas chose to play games in the media with lives."
“This situation is completely the fault of Hamas when they launched that brutal attack on Israel on October 7th. The president has made it very clear that he wants all of those hostages to come home," she said, adding that the President "fully supports Israel and the IDF and the actions that they have taken in recent days."
After the IAF launched a series of surprise airstrikes in Gaza early Tuesday morning, Leavitt told Fox News that Israel had consulted the US before launching strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
Asked whether the strikes on Gaza are the start of the fulfillment of Trump’s promise that “all hell will break loose” in Gaza if Hamas does not release the hostages, Leavitt replied, “Well, the Trump administration and the White House were consulted by the Israelis on their attacks in Gaza tonight, and as President Trump has made it clear, Hamas, the Houthis, Iran, all those who seek to terrorize not just Israel but also the United States of America will see a price to pay.”
She added, “All hell will break loose, and all of the terrorists in the Middle East, again, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, Iranian-backed terror proxies, and Iran themselves should take President Trump very seriously when he says he is not afraid to stand for law-abiding people. He is not afraid to stand up for the United States of America and our friend and our ally, Israel.”
“We know that these successful defensive strikes that took place over the weekend against the Houthis in the Red Sea were indeed successful. We took out some of their leaders, and the Defense Department is set to continue with this campaign if the Houthis continue with their retaliatory measures. The President is going to stand for the freedom of navigation of our seas, which is a very basic principle that, unfortunately, the previous administration refused to stand for, and that's why we are in this mess in the Middle East in the first place,” Leavitt stated, reiterating that Trump is focused on fixing the problems he inherited from the previous administration “and our allies and our adversaries better take him seriously.”
