US President Donald Trump on Friday acknowledged that Palestinians in Gaza are "starving" but defended Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the Israeli Prime Minister was in a "tough situation".
"Gaza is a nasty place," Mr Trump told Fox News, adding "it’s been that way for years".
Mr Trump said that "one of the three great leaders" he had met with on his trip to the Gulf this week had asked him to "please help the people, the Palestinians".
As to Mr Netanyahu, he said that it was important to remember the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking scores hostage.
"It was one of the most violent days in the history of the world. He has that problem. That problem should have never happened," he said.
More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's war in Gaza. The Israeli military began its campaign after Hamas-led militants attacked the south of Israel and killed about 1,200 people.
Mr Trump added that he has "already started working" on a solution to solve the crisis in Gaza.
Washington announced in recent days that the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would be getting food into the enclave by the end of May. The mechanism, which was approved by the Israeli security cabinet, will have US contractors protected by the Israeli military delivering aid in certain parts of the enclave to ensure it does not fall into the hands of Hamas.
The UN and aid organisations have criticised the new plans, saying they militarise humanitarian assistance.
"One way or the other, I'll get it solved. It's either going to be done nicely or it's going to be done violently," Mr Trump said.
He added that the leaders of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar would "absolutely" need to be part of the solution to the situation in Gaza, calling the leaders of the three countries "really good people".
"We're closer now to them [the Gulf countries] than ever before," Mr Trump said. "There's a relationship that I have with all three [leaders of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar] that's very extraordinary."
As to sanctions on Syria, Mr Trump said that he had removed the economic measures following intervention from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
"I hadn't thought about it much," he said. "He [Prince Mohammed] said, 'they can't make it with those sanctions."
The US announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria during Mr Trump's trip to the Gulf, with the US President saying it was the new government in Damascus's "time to shine".
Mr Trump acknowledged the "tough past" of new Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara - a former militant leader whose Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group ousted Bashar Al Assad from power last December - but said "are you going to put a choir boy in that position?"
During the interview, Mr Trump reiterated his plans to accept a new luxury plane from Qatar to replace the current Air Force One, saying the negative reaction in the US "insulted" Emir Sheikh Tamim.
"He made a gift to help somebody that has helped them. It was so nice as a gesture," Mr Trump said.
The President said "this plane is not for me, this goes to the United States Air Force for whoever is president", adding that it would be a stand-in until Boeing produces the promised two planes for the White House.
Mr Trump also claimed during the interview that James Comey, the former director of the FBI, had called for his assassination.
Mr Comey posted a photo on Instagram that showed seashells arranged into the numbers “86 47". He wrote: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
In American bars and restaurants, 86 is slang for denying service to or ejecting a customer. In police circles, it can be interpreted as a code for murder. Mr Trump is the 47th US President.
Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in 2017. The President said the former FBI head “knew exactly” what the numbers meant.
“A child knows what that meant. If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant? That meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear,” Mr Trump said in an interview with Fox News.
“Our country has become respected again … and he's calling for the assassination of the President.”
Mr Comey took the posting down and said he didn't know some people associated 86 with political violence.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said US police are investigating the alleged threat.
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
