Israel-Gaza conflict proves treacherous ground for US politicians

In the days immediately after the Hamas attack on Israel, the Republicans seeking the US presidency had focused their criticism on President Joe Biden and what they saw as American weakness and missteps that had paved the way for violence.

That changed on Wednesday night, however, when Donald Trump addressed the topic in a speech near his home in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Now some of Mr Trump's rivals are condemning the former president in some of the most direct language of this campaign.

During remarks to a crowd of supporters, Mr Trump said Israel had to "straighten it out because they're fighting, potentially a very big force".

He called Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant a "jerk" and repeatedly called Hezbollah, the militant Islamist group in Lebanon, "very smart".

Mr Trump also said that Israel had initially agreed to work with the US on a 2020 drone strike that killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, but that they backed out at the last minute.

"I'll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down," he said. "That was a very terrible thing."

In a television interview that aired Thursday, he went further in his criticism of the Israeli prime minister, saying Mr Netanyahu was "not very prepared" for the possibility of a Hamas attack.