Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – President Trump’s four-day visit to the Middle East was marked by a wave of activities: $ 1 billion trade agreements, a meeting with the new Syrian president and diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear deadlock with Iran.
But the fate of the Palestinian people and the war in Gaza, where the dead have been accumulating in recent days under an Israeli assault, seems to have received a short time.
On Friday, Trump finished his visit to the Persian Gulf, praising his capacities as a competitor when he forged trade agreements worth hundreds of billions of dollars – his administration indicates billions – from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
But despite his repeated insistence so that he alone can put a peaceful end to the insoluble problems of the world – and say on Friday that “we must help” the Palestinians – there was no breakthrough on the War of Israel -Hamas, and the president repeated his suggestion of the American involvement in the Gaza Strip.
Noting the general destruction in the territory, Trump said: “I have concepts for Gaza which, I think, are very good – make it a freedom of freedom. Let the United States get involved and make it an area of freedom. ”
President Trump descends the staircases from the Air Force One upon arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday.
(Luis M. Alvarez / Associated Press)
1 and 1 Palestinians find it difficult to donate food in community cuisine in Jabalia, north of Gaza Strip, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Jehad Alshrafi / Associated Press) 2 Islam Hajjaj Holds Her 6-Year-Old Daughter Najwa, Who Suffers from Malnutrition, at a Shelter in Central Gaza City, On May 11, 2025. Amnesty International Accus Israel on April 29 of Committing A ” Live-Streams Genocide ” Against Palestinians by Forcibly Displacing Gazans and Creat Humanitarian Catastrophe in the Besieged Territory, Claims Israel Dismisses as “” flagrant lies “. (Majdi Fathi / Nurphoto via Getty Images)
On Friday, Trump’s comments came when the Israeli army began the first stages of an offensive on the ground which it called “the tanks of Operation Gideon”-an apparent realization of an Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month, there was no cease-fire or a Gaza agreement at the time that Trump had finished his time in the Middle East.
Trump’s concerns “are agreements that benefit the American economy and improve” US global economic positions “or prevent costly military tangles in Iran or Yemen, Mouin Rabbani, a non -resident purse at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, based in Qatar.
“Unlike Syria or Iran,” said Rabbani, “ending the Gaza War has no economic advantage in the United States and does not risk the American troops that are involved in a new war.”
Before Trump’s four-day trip, there were movements that had hopes for ceasefire or the authorization of humanitarian aid in Gaza, which Israel blocked for more than two months when the aid groups warn imminent famine. On May 12, Hamas released Edan Alexander, a soldier with Israeli and American citizenship and the last American detainee in his hands, as a goodwill gesture to Trump, and there were rumors of a meeting between Trump and the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.
But this meeting has never taken place, and instead of a ceasefire, Israel launched strikes that the health authorities in the enclave say they have killed at least 250 people in recent days, including 45 children, according to UNICEF.
Friday, a man looks at the vehicles burned in the industrial zone of Barkan, near Salfit in an occupied West Bank, after more than 17 cars of Palestinian workers were burnt down by Israeli settlers the previous night. Since the start of the Gaza War in October 2023, violence has increased in full swing where the Israeli colonies have been illegal under international law.
(John Wessels / AFP via Getty Images)
Netanyahu insists that his goal is to destroy Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and entering around 250 hostages. The military campaign of Israel has so far killed at least 53,000 people in Gaza – including combatants and civilians, but especially women and children, according to health authorities – and many believe that it is not a sub -account.
A ceasefire that the entrant administration of Trump negotiated in January broke down in mid-March after Israel refused to continue negotiations in the second stage.
“We expect the American administration to exert additional pressure on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to open up level passages and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid, food, medicine and fuel to the Hospitals of the Gaza Strip,” Taher El-Nounou, a media advisor in Hamas, said on Friday in an interview with Agency France-Press.
He added that such movements were part of the understanding with American envoys during the last meetings, under which Hamas released Alexander.
However, there was little sign of this pressure, despite the fears in Israeli circles that Trump’s actions before and during his trip to the Middle East – which jumped Israel, saw Trump negotiate an agreement with the Houthis of Yemen and raise sanctions on Syria without Israeli contribution – was a snub for Netanyahu.
President Trump talks about the Air Force One at Abu Dhabi International Airport before leaving on Friday in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
Addressing journalists on Air Force One while leaving the Emirati capital, Abu Dhabi, Friday, Trump has circumvented the questions on the renewed Israeli offensive, saying: “I think that many good things will happen over the next month, and we will see.”
“We also have to help Palestinians,” he said. “You know, many people are starving in Gaza, so we have to look at both sides.”
On the first day of the Middle East trip to Trump, Saudi Arabia, he announced that the United States ended the sanctions against Syria, now led by an Islamist government which overthrew Bashar Assad’s longtime dictator in December. He met the Syrian interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa and congratulated him as a “hard to cook” and a “fighter”.
Israel considers the government of Al-Sharaa as a threat and has made forays in its territory since the fall of Assad, and has launched a scouring air strike campaign to challenge emerging government forces.
When asked if he knew that Israel opposed the lifting of the sanctions, Trump said: “I don’t know, I didn’t question them.”
Palestinians find it difficult to donate food in community cuisine in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, Friday.
(Abdel Kareem Hana / Associated Press)
Commentators say that although Washington’s leverage on Israel should facilitate a Gaza ceasefire for Trump administration seeking to project itself as an effective peacemaker, the conflict there remains a low priority for Trump.
“Gaza may seem to be fruit with low suspension on the surface, but it is also a low political yield-how does it act decisively in Gaza benefiting in Trump?
He added that Netanyahu would no longer be in line with Trump’s vision to own and redo Gaza, while on Iran, Syria and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, it is logical to separate the American interests from the Israel.
“Palestinians have nothing to offer to Trump. And the Gulf States have offered their investments for free, without conditions on Gaza. Gaza is a moral, not strategic imperative, and Trump is not known to act for moral reasons. ”
