By Our Online Reporter
ÉVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — In a striking escalation of public diplomatic pressure, President Donald Trump used the backdrop of the G7 summit in France to issue a blunt ultimatum to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding a complete physical withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon by this coming Friday.
The directive, first reported by Shirit Avitan Cohen of Israel Hayom, marks one of the most severe rifts between Washington and Jerusalem in recent history.
It highlights Mr. Trump’s growing impatience with the protracted conflict and his determination to protect a sensitive, emerging diplomatic accord with Iran.
Speaking to reporters at the lakeside resort of Évian-les-Bains, where world leaders have gathered for the 52nd G7 summit, Mr. Trump did not mince words regarding Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah, which has increasingly drawn international condemnation for its devastating humanitarian toll.
“Israel has been fighting Lebanon for too long and too many people are being killed,” Mr. Trump said, offering a remarkably candid critique of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) urban warfare tactics.
“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody. There are a lot of people in those apartment houses and they’re not all Hezbollah.”
The public rebuke has sent shockwaves through Jerusalem. According to senior Israeli officials, the political and security establishments were left “stunned” by the American president’s rhetoric.
The administration’s aggressive timeline—giving Israel less than a week to dismantle its operational footprint in southern Lebanon—represents a radical shift in U.S. foreign policy, moving from quiet diplomatic maneuvering to explicit, public coercion.
The friction between the two long-standing allies is deeply rooted in a broader geopolitical balancing act. The Trump administration is currently finalizing a high-stakes preliminary agreement with Tehran aimed at easing regional hostilities and reopening critical maritime corridors like the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran has repeatedly threatened to walk away from these delicate negotiations if Israel continues its sweeping air and ground campaign in Lebanon.
For Mr. Trump, who prides himself on his deal-making prowess, Israel’s stubbornness is increasingly viewed as a liability to his chief foreign policy objective.
Israeli officials fear that the looming U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding will severely curtail Israel’s freedom of action and leave it vulnerable to a reconstituted Hezbollah. Mr. Netanyahu has reportedly rejected the Friday deadline out of hand during tense, expletive-laden phone calls with Mr. Trump, arguing that an abrupt withdrawal serves neither Israeli nor American strategic interests.
To assuage these anxieties—or perhaps to strip Israel of its primary justification for continuing the war—Mr. Trump stated at the G7 summit that the deal with Iran contains safeguards for Jerusalem. Specifically, he asserted that in the event of any future, defensive Israeli action against threats emanating from Lebanon, the pact with Iran will not be considered violated.
The current crisis marks a dramatic departure from the historically ironclad alignment between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu. While Washington has traditionally shielded Israeli military operations from international timelines, the scale of civilian casualties and the systemic destruction of residential infrastructure in Lebanon have altered the calculus.
Reports from regional monitoring groups, including Kurdish Front News, indicate that domestic and regional pressure has been compounding rapidly. Families have been fleeing Lebanese border towns in droves, and the social cost of the conflict has increasingly dominated the G7 agenda.
As the Friday deadline approaches, Mr. Netanyahu finds himself cornered between an uncompromising military strategy at home and an increasingly hostile commander-in-chief in Washington.
Whether Israel will comply with the ultimatum or risk a historic rupture with its most vital global benefactor remains the defining question of the summit.
