Trump tells Knesset US gave Israel ‘a lot of weapons’; heckled during speech

US President Donald Trump faced heckling from two Israeli lawmakers during his address to the Knesset, during which he gave much praise to Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also boasted about supplying lethal American weapons to the regime.

Ofer Cassif and Ayman Odeh, members of Israel’s joint Hadash-Taal party, interrupted Trump’s address to the Knesset with banners demanding the recognition of the Palestinian state. They were both removed from the parliament.

In an X post, Odeh said he was dragged out of the Knesset because he raised “the simplest demand, one that the whole international community agrees on: Recognize the State of Palestine! Recognize the simple truth.”

In a separate post, Odeh said that crowning Netanyahu “through flattery … does not absolve him and his cabinet of the crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.” 

Cassif also took to X to call for an end to the Israeli occupation and apartheid and the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying, “Refuse to be occupiers! Resist the government of bloodshed!”

During his speech, Trump said the US has the best weapons, and “we’ve given a lot of them to Israel, frankly.”

“Bibi would call me so many times – can you get me this weapon, that weapon, and some of them I’d never heard of,” he added, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

“But we’d get them here, wouldn’t we,” the US president said, noting, “Israel knew how to use them well.”

Meanwhile, he claimed that Israel has “won all that it can by force of arms.”

Trump further said that the recent ceasefire agreement, proposed by his administration, marks the end of Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as the end of the “age of terror and death.”

The deal is the start of an “age of concord” for the Israeli regime and regional countries, he stated. “It’s the historic dawn of the new Middle East.”

Hamas: Israel ‘manipulating’ list of Palestinian abductees, evading ceasefire terms

A senior Hamas official says Israel is “manipulating” the list of Palestinian abductees slated for exchange under a recently agreed ceasefire and evading the implementation of the deal, despite pledging compliance to international mediators.

Trump also called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, who is currently on trial on corruption charges, and stands accused of fraud and breach of trust over a scandal involving the acceptance of luxury gifts.

“I have an idea, why don’t you give Netanyahu a pardon?” he said in comments directed at Herzog. "Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about this?" Trump said, referring to illicit gifts mentioned in one of the charges against the Israeli prime minister.

The US president also praised Netanyahu's leadership during the last two years of war on Gaza. "You are very popular because you know how to win," he claimed, despite Netanyahu facing almost daily protests for his handling of the war. 

Ahead of Trump’s speech, Netanyahu made an address to the Israeli parliament.

He thanked the US president for his policy toward Tel Aviv, including moving the US embassy to the occupied lands to al-Quds, recognizing Israel’s sovereignty claim over Syria's Golan Heights, withdrawing from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, and supporting the regime at the United Nations.

Netanyahu also indicated that Trump supports Israeli control over the occupied West Bank.

Moreover, Netanyahu awarded Trump with the Israel Prize, the usurping regime's highest cultural honor.

Last week, Trump proposed a Gaza ceasefire plan, to which Israel and the Palestinian Hamas resistance group agreed after three days of indirect negotiations in Egypt.

Under the first phase of the deal, which came into effect at noon local time on Friday, Hamas had to free 48 captives — dead and alive — in exchange for the release of roughly 2,000 Palestinian abductees from Israeli jails.

The agreement also includes the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the withdrawal of the occupation forces to an agreed line from the besieged territory.

Analysts say the truce deal represents a defeat for the occupying regime as it failed to meet its "goals" of eliminating Hamas and releasing Israeli captives by force despite killing 67,869 Palestinians, mostly women and children, during its two-year-long genocide in Gaza.

In the course of the brutal onslaught on Gaza, the US provided full weaponry and political support to Israel in defiance of international criticisms.

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