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Quick Take
Attacks by Israeli forces and Hamas continue to kill or displace people in the Gaza Strip. But social media posts misleadingly claim Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election led Hamas to call for an end to the war in Gaza. Hamas has called for a ceasefire several times before the election. And the violence has continued since Election Day.
Full Story
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 46 people in the Gaza Strip on Nov. 12. An Israeli attack on a refugee camp school left at least 10 people dead on Nov. 16. And on Nov. 23 the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for a northern Gaza suburb due to rocket fire from Hamas.
All of this happened after it became clear on Nov. 6 that former President Donald Trump had won a second term in the White House.
But a claim that arose shortly after the election has continued to spread online, suggesting that Trump’s win resulted in an end to the violence in Gaza.
Starting the day after the election, some widely followed accounts posted a screenshot of a headline that said, “Hamas Calls for ‘Immediate’ End to War After Trump Election Win.”
Donald Trump Jr., for example, posted the screenshot on Truth Social and Instagram with the message, “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.” Many replies to his post indicated that readers understood it to mean that Trump had ended the war.
“Trump brings world peace and saves millions of lives and liberals will somehow call him racist,” one commenter said.
Others spread similarly suggestive claims without the screenshot, including YouTube influencer and professional boxer Jake Paul, who endorsed Trump’s 2024 bid for the White House. On Nov. 7, he posted on X a list titled, “Trump 48 hours not even in office,” and included as the third item, “Hamas calls for ‘immediate end to war.'”
That claim has continued to spread. Conservative commentator Liz Wheeler posted about it on Nov. 8 and Kayleigh McEnany, who served as press secretary during Trump’s first term, repeated the claim on the Nov. 11 episode of her Fox News show, “Outnumbered.”
And it continues to spread across social media. Another list of Trump’s supposed pre-inauguration accomplishments posted to Facebook on Nov. 16 says Hamas has called for an immediate end to the war and claims, “It has been ONLY 11 days since Donald J. Trump elected, there’s already PEACE around the WORLD.”
But, of course, Trump’s election has not yet ushered in peace in Gaza, and any posts suggesting that it has are wrong.
“It’s impossible for that to be true because the battle is still going on on multiple fronts,” Ibrahim Abusharif, a professor of journalism and strategic communication at Northwestern University in Qatar, told us in an interview. The fact that the claim is proliferating so widely on social media “just reminds us again that this is an unreliable space for information, for facts, and for truth telling,” he said.
The headline at the root of this claim is real. It appeared on Newsweek’s website on Nov. 6. But presenting it on its own, detached from the accompanying story, is misleading since it could be used to suggest that Trump is responsible for ending the violence in Gaza.
The full story explains that a senior Hamas official told Newsweek: “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.” (As president, Trump proposed a “realistic two-state solution” in 2020 with Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided capital.”)
Hamas’ calls for an end to the violence aren’t new. The group has sought a ceasefire at several points since Israeli forces struck Gaza following the Hamas-led terror attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and abducted 254. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by the Hamas-controlled government, has reported more than 44,000 people killed in Gaza since the war began.
Forecasting what effect the incoming Trump administration may have on the war between Israel and Hamas is difficult, experts agree.
“Donald Trump’s election introduces new uncertainty into Middle East affairs,” Natan Sachs, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, wrote on Nov. 14.
Sachs suggested that the Arab Gulf states and Israel “may now be eager to give Trump early ‘wins,’ to capitalize on the relationship for their own interests and in the hope that Trump shows more flexibility as he enters office.”
“Trump historically, and those around him, have been very sympathetic to Israel,” Warren Strobel, the Wall Street Journal’s intelligence and security reporter, answered when asked at a panel discussion what the Trump administration would likely mean for the conflict there. “I think you will see, by and large, support for Israel in the region.”
Strobel predicted the Trump administration would likely increase its previous maximum pressure campaign aimed at reigning in Iran’s nuclear program, largely by imposing economic sanctions, which could affect funding for Hamas and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group based in Lebanon and funded largely by Iran, clashed with Israel immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, leading to a more than yearlong fight on the Israel-Lebanon border. On Nov. 26, 2024, Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement. The deal does not end the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
It’s unclear exactly what impact Trump’s second presidency will have on the war in Gaza.
“He’s fickle,” Abusharif said of Trump’s likely approach. “He has a history of making muscular promises and not following up.”
So we don’t know what will happen in Gaza during Trump’s next term. But we do know that the fighting continues, regardless of the results of the U.S. election.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Meta to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Meta has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
Associated Press. “Israeli strikes kill dozens in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, medics say.” 13 Nov 2024.
Reuters. “Israeli strike kills 10 at Gaza school sheltering displaced families, medics say.” 16 Nov 2024.
Al-Mughrabi, Nidal. “Israeli army orders Gaza City suburb evacuated.” Reuters. 24 Nov 2024.
Abusharif, Ibrahim. Professor of journalism and strategic communication, Northwestern University in Qatar. Zoom interview with FactCheck.org. 19 Nov 2024.
O’Connor, Tom. “Hamas Calls for ‘Immediate’ End to War After Trump Election Win.” Newsweek. Updated 9 Nov 2024.
Nakhoul, Samia, et al. “Netanyahu calls Hamas ceasefire proposal ‘delusional’ but Blinken sees scope for progress.” Reuters. 7 Feb 2024.
Magdy, Samy and Drew Callister. “Here’s what’s on the table for Israel and Hamas in the latest cease-fire plan.” Associated Press. 7 May 2024.
Al-Mughrabi, Nidal and Maytaal Angel. “Gaza ceasefire: Hamas says again it wants implementation, not more talks.” Reuters. 13 Aug 2024.
Al-Mughrabi, Nidal. “Hamas says Israel still blocking ceasefire agreement.” Reuters. 6 Oct 2024.
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U.S. Department of State. Press release. “Anniversary of October 7th Attack.” 7 Oct 2024.
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U.S. Department of State. “Maximum Pressure Campaign on the Regime in Iran.” 4 Apr 2019.