Donald Trump lashed out at Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an expletive-laden phone call over Israel’s continued strikes in Lebanon on Monday, according to US media reports.
The US president was reportedly furious after Iran threatened to suspend peace talks with the US over Israel’s strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, telling the Israeli prime minister that “everybody hates Israel” because of his actions.
In his public remarks after the two leaders spoke, Mr Trump announced that a partial truce had been agreed between Israel and Hezbollah and that the call had been “very productive”.
But behind closed doors Mr Trump is said to have yelled at Mr Netanyahu over the phone, calling him “f****** crazy”, Axios reported late on Monday, citing two unnamed US officials familiar with the call.
“You’re f****** crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this,” Mr Trump said, according to a US official’s summary of the remarks.
Another source who briefed Axios about the call said Mr Trump was “pissed” and at one point yelled at Mr Netanyahu: “What the f*** are you doing?”
Mr Trump’s intervention came after Israel expanded its ground operations in southern Lebanon. Israel and Hezbollah agreed a fragile ceasefire in mid April, but the militant group resumed attacks after Israeli strikes in Lebanon that Israel characterised as self-defence.
Mr Trump was concerned by the fact that many Lebanese civilians have been killed in Israeli strikes and objected to Israel knocking down buildings to take down a single Hezbollah commander, a US official said.
In what has been described as one of the worst calls between the two, Mr Trump “steamrolled” Mr Netanyahu, a US official said, and Mr Netanyahu responded with “OK, OK just make sure everything is taken care of”.
Later in the day, Mr Trump said there would be no troops going to Beirut and those already on the way have been turned back following the call.
He said he also had a call with Hezbollah via intermediaries and “agreed that all shooting will stop – That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”
In another Truth Social Post, he said: “Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Mr Netanyahu released a statement after the call saying he “told [Trump] that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens – Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut”.
“This stance of ours remains unchanged,” he said.
“In parallel, the IDF will continue to operate as planned in southern Lebanon,” he added, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.
Moments after Mr Trump’s message, Israel detected missile launches from Lebanon and warned Israelis in part of northern Israel to take cover.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi asserted Monday that any ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran is a “ceasefire on all fronts, including Lebanon.”
“Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts,” Iran’s top diplomat said in a post on X.
Talks between Israel and Lebanon were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, where Lebanese negotiators hope to widen the scope of areas that will not be attacked in the country as they seek a complete ceasefire.
Mr Trump’s phone call came after Israel’s government ordered strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and as Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, including the outskirts of the coastal city of Haifa.
A joint statement by Mr Netanyahu and Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said the orders followed what they called repeated violations of the ceasefire by Hezbollah and “attacks against our cities and citizens.”
