The White House stressed Monday that US President Donald Trump wants the war in Gaza to end, as American officials denied reports that Washington was threatening to “abandon” Israel if it didn’t follow suit.
Trump “has made it very clear he wants to see this conflict in the region end,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to a question during a briefing about whether Washington supports Netanyahu’s comments from earlier in the day that Israel will take over all of Gaza as it massively expands its military campaign in the Strip.
“The president is moving as quickly as he possibly can and working overtime to end these conflicts in both Israel and Gaza and also the Russia-Ukraine war,” Leavitt added. “The president made it very clear to Hamas that he wanted to see all hostages released.”
Netanyahu does appear to be responding to the mounting US desire to end the war, saying Monday that he’d be willing to end the conflict “if the remaining hostages are released, Hamas lays down its arms, its murderous leaders are exiled and Gaza is demilitarized.”
But Hamas has said it will only release the hostages if Israel fully withdraws from Gaza — something Netanyahu has said won’t happen, insisting that the IDF will control the Strip for the foreseeable future.
Separately Monday, The Washington Post published a report citing an an unnamed source, who claimed the Trump administration would abandon Israel if it kept the war going in Gaza.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee dismissed the claim, telling the Ynet news site, “Their reporting is nonsense. They need to listen to what the President says – not what some uninformed ‘source’ pretends to know.”
A senior US official chimed in, telling The Times of Israel that while there may be disagreements between the Trump administration and Israel, “the idea that we would abandon Israel is preposterous.”
The official also denied reports in American and Israeli press that Israel’s agreement to allow a small amount of aid into Gaza on Monday after a 78-day blockade was part of a secret deal with Hamas that saw the terror group release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander last week.
“This was a goodwill gesture. The release was unconditional,” the US official told The Times of Israel.
Hamas did hope that the move would lead to the US coaxing Israel to end the war and allow aid into Gaza, but that was not a condition of his release, according to the Palestinian official.