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........

© The Times of Israel