Donald Trump said he wanted to give Israel a quick victory and would give the country the support it needed to achieve this (file).

Washington:

Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday that he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to quickly end Israel’s war in Gaza during their last meeting in July, but the former president also criticized calls for a ceasefire.

“He knows what he’s doing. I’ve encouraged him to get this over with,” Trump told reporters at a news conference Thursday. “It’s got to be over quickly. … Get your victory and get it over with. It’s got to stop, the killing’s got to stop.”

Trump was referring to his meeting with Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago residence in late July when Netanyahu visited the United States. During his trip, he also met with President Joe Biden and Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The threat of a wider war in the Middle East has increased following the recent assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas, in Iran, and Fuad Shukr, the military commander of Hezbollah in Beirut. Both have been threatened with retaliatory strikes against Israel.

At an event later Thursday to combat anti-Semitism, Trump criticized Biden and Harris’ months-long calls for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

“From the beginning, Harris has worked to tie Israel’s hands behind its back by demanding an immediate ceasefire, demanding a ceasefire again and again,” Trump said, adding that this “would only give Hamas time to regroup and launch another October 7-style attack.”

Trump added: “I will give Israel the support it needs to win, but I want it to win quickly.”

At the same event, Trump also labeled pro-Palestinian supporters who called for an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war as “pro-Hamas thugs” and “jihad sympathizers,” and threatened to arrest and deport them from the United States if he became president.

Both Netanyahu’s office and Trump independently denied an Axios report on Thursday that they had discussed the Gaza ceasefire and talks on the release of the hostages the previous day.

Biden put forward a proposal for a three-phase ceasefire in a speech on May 31. Washington and regional mediators have since tried to arrange a ceasefire against hostages in the Gaza Strip, but have repeatedly encountered obstacles.

The Axios report cited two U.S. sources. One source said the call was intended to persuade Netanyahu to accept the deal, but stressed that he did not know whether former President Netanyahu actually said that.

Egypt, the United States and Qatar have scheduled a new round of ceasefire talks over Gaza this week.

Washington, Israel’s main ally, has said a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip would reduce the growing threat of a wider war.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli sources.

According to the local health ministry, Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-ruled enclave has now killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and displaced almost the entire population of 2.3 million, leading to famine and accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which Israel denies.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)