EVIAN-LES-BAINS, FRANCE — U.S. President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to adopt a “softer touch” in operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, delivering another public rebuke to a close partner in the region’s widening conflict.
Speaking to reporters at the close of the G7 summit, Trump said Netanyahu “gets a little excited sometimes” and suggested Israel need not resort to heavy-handed tactics, saying, “You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.” The comment followed days of tension over Israel’s conduct in Lebanon, where Washington has pushed for restraint as part of a limited U.S.-Iran deal that seeks to curb wider escalation.
Israeli leaders have resisted being constrained by the U.S.-Iran arrangement in their campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah, though fighting in Lebanon has eased somewhat since Trump’s earlier criticism. Trump said he viewed Israel as a “very small partner” of the United States but thanked Netanyahu for his role in confronting Iran. He also said he had shared with Netanyahu a copy of the “memorandum of understanding” the U.S. reached with Iran, which clears the way for expanded peace talks in Switzerland starting Friday.