Trump calls for Gaza war to end soon as Israel steps up strikes
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Palestinians gathering outside Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Aug 25, following Israeli strikes.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump called for an end “soon” to Israel’s conflict with Hamas, even as he has continued to back Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and declined to urge him by name to stop his military’s stepped-up campaign in the Gaza Strip.
“Right now they’re talking about Gaza City – there’s always talking about something,” Mr Trump said in an Oval Office meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung
“At some point it’s going to get settled, and I’m saying you better get it settled soon. You have to get it settled soon.”
He added: “It’s got to get over with because, between the hunger and all of the other problems – worse than hunger, death, pure death – people being killed.”
He said there was a “very serious diplomatic push” to end the war, though he did not say what that was.
Mr Trump appeared to be referring to Mr Netanyahu’s plans to extend a ground campaign to Gaza City after previously skirting the area out of concern for hostages the military believes are held there.
He did not say what the US would do if the campaign drags on.
“I think within the next two to three weeks you’re going to have a pretty good, conclusive – a conclusive ending,” Mr Trump said.
Israel has intensified its operations in Gaza in recent days, and earlier on Aug 25, a strike on a hospital in the south of the Palestinian territory killed 20 people, including five journalists
Mr Netanyahu later said he regretted “the tragic mishap that occurred today at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza”, according to a statement from his office.
Last week, a UN-backed body declared a famine in Gaza for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in 2023.
That prompted renewed international calls for an end to the fighting and speeding up the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Israel rejected the findings, with Mr Netanyahu’s office calling the report “an outright lie” in a statement.
Mr Trump has largely remained silent on the finding, though US Ambassador Mike Huckabee wrote on X that aid going into Gaza had been stolen. BLOOMBERG
