Within a day of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump winning the 2024 election, some of his supporters claimed he had already fulfilled his promise to end foreign wars, particularly the Israel-Hamas conflict. A Nov. 7, 2024, Newsweek headline, "Hamas Calls for 'Immediate' End to War After Trump Election Win," often accompanied such claims in social media posts.
Snopes readers asked whether Hamas had indeed called for the war to end. On X, posts cited Newsweek's headline as evidence that Trump had ended the Middle East conflict "within 24 hours of being elected."
(X user @still_hustling)
(X user @dickmasterson)
Even Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. shared the headline and claimed, "It took about 12 hours after my father's election win for Hamas to call for peace! @realDonaldTrump isn't even president yet and he's already getting it done. Spectacular."
It's true that Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim delivered a statement about the Israel-Hamas conflict to Newsweek on Nov. 6, the day after Trump was elected. However, Trump's supporters misleadingly characterized that statement as a call for an end to the war, when in fact Naim called for, in his words, an end to Israel's "aggression against our people, especially in Gaza," and an end to what he described as the United States' "blind support" for Israel.
Naim's full statement to Newsweek read as follows (emphasis ours):
The election of Trump as the 47th president of the USA is a private matter for the Americans, but Palestinians look forward to an immediate cessation of the aggression against our people, especially in Gaza, and look for assistance in achieving their legitimate rights of freedom, independence, and the establishment of their independent self-sovereign state with Jerusalem as its capital. […] The blind support for the Zionist entity "Israel" and its fascist government, at the expense of the future of our people and the security and stability of the region, must stop immediately.
Another Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters, "We urge Trump to learn from Biden's mistakes," and said Trump would be tested on his claim that he could stop the war within hours of taking office as U.S. president. Trump won't take office until Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2025.
Hamas' November 2024 statement to the media was neither the first nor likely to be the last from the group calling for an end to hostilities. In January and May 2024, for example, Hamas made repeated offers for cease-fire deals and hostage exchanges with Israel in order to end the war. Each side has blamed the other for failing to reach an agreement.
In another statement released to the media after the U.S. election, Hamas said: "Our position on the new US administration depends on its positions and practical behavior towards our Palestinian people, their legitimate rights and their just cause." Hamas added that the new president must "listen to the voices of the American community itself rejecting the aggression on Gaza" and "must realize that our people are continuing to confront the occupation and will not accept a path that diminishes their rights."
Trump's election victory had no immediate, discernible impact on Israel's ongoing attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. On Nov. 6, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 40 people in eastern Lebanon, and an Israeli attack on a house in Gaza killed 15 Palestinians. On Nov. 7, Israeli airstrikes and bombs hit a refugee camp in northern Gaza and Rafah City in southern Gaza, killing more than a dozen people.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli military base near Tel Aviv with a swarm of drones, though there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. Israel expanded its offensive into northern Gaza and acknowledged systematically removing residents from the region. The Israeli military said Palestinians would not be allowed to return to their homes in the north, and aid only be sent to the south. Humanitarian-law experts have called these tactics war crimes of forcible transfer and the use of food as a weapon.