Trump calls on Israel to end its Gaza war, ‘it is damaging Israel’s international reputation’, he said

Photo: U.N. says ‘famine is imminent’ in Gaza as Israel launches raid on the main hospital

Former President Trump warned in an interview published Monday that the war in Gaza is damaging Israel’s international reputation and repeatedly advised Israel to end it soon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is picking a fight with President Biden over a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, which the U.S. declined to veto. Now the other 2024 contender — and Netanyahu’s highest-profile international ally — is also calling for a swift resolution to the war.

Trump arguably went a step further than Biden, who hasn’t explicitly called for an end to the war and has been careful to link calls for a ceasefire with demands that Hamas release all remaining hostages.

What Trump is saying: “You have to finish up your war. … You have to get it done. We have to get to peace. We can’t have this going on. And I will say, Israel has to be very careful because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support,” Trump told conservative Israeli outlet Israel Hayom.

“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters in Addis Ababa where he was attending an African Union summit on Sunday and compared Israeli war on Gaza with the Holocaust

Trump circled back to that message multiple times in the interview, saying: “Israel has to do what they have to do but we have to get to peace, because the world is turning and it’s not a good thing for Israel.”

“Be strong, be smart and let’s get this over with,” he said later.

On the other side: Netanyahu insists the war cannot end until Hamas is eliminated and “Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” something he has said will take “months not years.”

He has fumed at Biden and other top Democrats advocating for a ceasefire, but is unlikely to pick a public fight with Trump.

While Trump has expressed support for Israel in recent months, he has avoided publicly backing Netanyahu and the two have not spoken.

Trump claimed Hamas could not have attacked Israel while he was president because “Iran was broke” (Iran provides some support to Hamas, but the group has other funding sources) and acted now because “they have no respect for” Biden.

AXIOS