'Get it over with' — Trump renews call for Israel to end Gaza invasion

Former US President Donald Trump has offered a tough message to Israel over its war against besieged Palestinians, urging the country to: "Get it over with."

In an interview on Thursday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump said that Israel is "absolutely losing the PR war" and called for a swift resolution to the bloodshed.

"Get it over with and let's get back to peace and stop killing people. And that's a very simple statement," Trump said. "They have to get it done. Get it over with and get it over with fast because we have to — you have to get back to normalcy and peace."

The presumptive GOP nominee also appeared to question the tactics of the Israeli military as the civilian death toll in Gaza continues to mount. Since Hamas cross-fence blitz into Israel on October 7, Israel's military has battered the Palestinian territory, killing more than 33,000 residents, and creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

Trump specifically criticised Israel's decision to release footage of its offensive actions. Throughout the war, the Israeli military has released videos of air strikes and other attacks.

"They shouldn't be releasing tapes like that," he said. "That's why they're losing the PR war. They, Israel is absolutely losing the PR war."

"They’re releasing the most heinous, most horrible tapes of buildings falling down. And people are imagining there's a lot of people in those buildings, or people in those buildings, and they don't like it," he added.

"They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life."

Imagery and optics

The comments offered a vivid example of the attention Trump pays to imagery and optics as he measures the cost of war.

But they also show the similarities between Trump's and Biden's positions, even as Trump has criticised Biden’s handling of the conflict, going so far as to charge that Jews who vote for Democrats hate "their religion."

Until Thursday, Biden's administration had broadly backed Israel's war on Gaza, even as he called for a short term ceasefire to free hostages and surge humanitarian aid. He had also expressed concern that Israel’s operation was isolating it on the world stage.

That concern has intensified since an Israeli air strike this week killed seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers, mostly foreigners, who were try to deliver food to Palestinians, adding a new layer of complication to Biden and Netanyahu's increasingly strained relationship.

In a phone call on Thursday Biden issued a stark new warning to Israel, telling Netanyahu that future US support for the war depends on new steps to protect civilians and aid workers.

In interviews for a book about his Middle East peace efforts, Trump, according to the author, used an expletive to describe Netanyahu, said he believed the Israeli leader never really wanted to make peace.

In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack, Trump drew rare condemnation from his GOP rivals when he lashed out at Netanyahu, saying Israeli leaders needed to "step up their game" and that Netanyahu "was not prepared" for the Hamas blitz.

Trump was also criticised by some in Israel for comments he made to the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom last month calling for a swift end to the war.

"I will say Israel has to be very careful because you are losing a lot of the world. You are losing a lot of support," he had warned.