From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Trump: ‘I stopped’ Netanyahu from fighting Gaza war, ‘he would have just kept going,’ maybe ‘for years’
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US President Donald Trump tells Time magazine that he made Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stop fighting the war against Hamas in Gaza, and that it may have continued for years otherwise.
In the interview, published today and conducted on October 15, days after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza took effect, Trump says he told Netanyahu the war could not go on without end.
“I said to Bibi, ‘Bibi, you can’t fight the world. You can fight individual battles, but the world’s against you. And Israel is a very small place compared to the world.'”
The US president continued, “You know, I stopped him, because he would have just kept going. It could have gone on for years. It would have gone on for years. And I stopped him, and everybody came together when I stopped, it was amazing.”
He calls Israel’s attempted strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar a “mistake” that was “terrible,” but says it created momentum toward the deal.
“And when he made that one tactical mistake, the one on Qatar, and that was terrible, but actually, and I actually told the emir, this was one of the things that brought us all together, because it was so out of joint that it sort of got everybody to do what they have to do.”
The Times of Israel Community.