American President Donald Trump on Tuesday openly criticized Israel’s military tactics in Lebanon, saying it was not necessary to level entire apartment buildings in the hunt for Hezbollah militants.
Speaking at the G7 summit in France, Trump said that Israel had been fighting Hezbollah for “too long” and that “too many people have been killed”.
“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody. There are a lot of people in those houses, and they are not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you,” he said.
The remarks mark a rare public break from a leader Trump has consistently backed. His comments come amid rising tensions with Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has been pushing forward with strikes on Beirut even as Trump was working to finalise a peace deal with Iran.
Israeli officials have privately voiced frustration over the Iran agreement Trump struck, while Trump has grown impatient with Netanyahu over the Beirut strikes, which drew Iranian attacks at a critical moment in the negotiations.
Trump told reporters he had a “great relationship” with Netanyahu but added in the same breath that Israel should be “more responsible” with Lebanon, adding that without US support and without him specifically, “Israel would not exist.”
Shortly after his remarks, an official White House social media account posted a clip of the comments, though the White House gave no explanation for why it chose to amplify them. A White House official described Trump as the greatest friend Israel had ever had and said that the Israel Defense Forces remained “incredible partners”.
There is no indication the comments would translate into any policy shift that would pressure Israel to change how it conducts operations in Lebanon.
Israel has faced widespread international criticism over its genocide in Gaza, where 73,000 people have been killed according to the Gaza health ministry, most of them civilians while thousands others remain unaccounted for.
