Former US President Donald Trump warned Israel in a published interview that it was losing support over the war in Gaza, repeating his call to Israeli government to "end it".
The comments by Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to face President Joe Biden in November's US election, came as Washington abstained from a UN Security Council vote calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
"You have to finish your war," Trump told the Israel Hayom newspaper in an interview that the right-wing Free newspaper said was recorded over the weekend.
"And I will say that Israel has to be very careful because you lose a lot of support, you have to finish, you have to do your job."
Trump has often portrayed himself as a staunch ally of Israel, highlighting his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and his administration's role in brokering the 2020 Abraham Accords, which saw Arab states including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalize ties you are with Israel.
Palestinians, who claim Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem as their future capital, oppose Trump's policies.
The former president also lashed out at Democratic politicians, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, for criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"I think it's terrible," Trump said of Schumer's recent remarks in which he called for early elections in Israel.
Trump told Israel Hayom that he would respond to a Hamas attack "in the same way" as Israel, but expressed concern about the optics of a war in which Israeli strikes have left much of Gaza in ruins.
"I think that's one of the reasons why there was a lot of backlash," Trump said, arguing that the Israeli military should not have released footage of its strikes.
"If people hadn't seen that, I've watched every single one of them every single night. And I think Israel wanted to show that it's tough, but sometimes it shouldn't be." /BGNES
