Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, said on Wednesday that “Hamas has substantially harmed the people of Gaza” with its “commitment to terrorist violence.”

Greenblatt made his comments during a tour of the Israel-Gaza border area, accompanied by IDF Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. The envoy stated that “it is clear that the Palestinian Authority needs to resume its role in the administration of Gaza,” taking over power from Hamas, the terrorist group in complete political and military control of the Strip, Haaretz reported.

This is the first time a senior official in the Trump administration publicly voiced support for such a strategy toward Gaza.

Greenblatt explained that the tour of the region helped him learn “a great deal about the difficult challenges facing the IDF, Israelis living in surrounding areas, and the Palestinians living in Gaza, as a result of Hamas’ mismanagement of humanitarian aid and its commitment to terrorist violence.”

Meanwhile United States Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview that the U.S. and Israel are “of the same mind” when it comes to containing Iran’s military presence in Syria.

Friedman, in his first wide-ranging interview with the Israeli media since taking up the role in mid-May, said the U.S. was “extraordinarily receptive” to Israel’s concerns over Iran’s entrenchment in Syria.

Regarding Israeli-Palestinian affairs, the ambassador said that the Trump administration was “trying very hard not to repeat the mistakes of the past.” He said that Trump’s decision to dispatch him to the Jewish state was a signal that “America is going to be a better friend to Israel than it had been over the past eight years.”

[Photo: Gaza 2009 Project by Marius Arnesen/Wikimedia]