Trump says ‘without me there would be no Israel’

2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jun 16, 2026 05:26 PM IST

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticised the Israeli military’s campaign against the Hezbollah militant group and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must be “more responsible” on Lebanon.

Speaking to reporters in France at the G7 Summit, Trump said the conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has gone on for too long, and “too many people are being killed.”

Referring to the recent strike by the Israeli military in Lebanon’s southern suburb, Trump suggested he was upset with it as the attack came shortly before the interim peace deal was announced between the US and Iran.

Trump said, “And you don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody. Because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses. And they’re not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you.”

The US President highlighted America’s support for Israel and said, “Without the US, there’d be no Israel,” adding Tel Aviv “would have been blown up a long time ago had I not gotten involved.”

Trump called the fighting in Lebanon a “minor war” and described Hezbollah as “the little pinprick out there that constantly rears its head,” but said the peace deal with Iran would survive even if Tel Aviv continues to strike Beirut.

He added that he hasn’t been “happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and Hezbollah.”

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