Trump has maintained a strategic silence on Gaza. So what is his policy?

Donald Trump has been uncharacteristically quiet on what is likely to be one of the biggest foreign policy issues of his second term, should he win in November. But in the few interviews and statements he has given on Israel and the war in Gaza, the former president has shown signs that he may be cooling in his support for the longtime US ally.

In a recent interview, the former president spoke about how he had been disturbed by images and videos showing civilians bearing the brunt of the onslaught and called for an end to the war.

“I think Israel made a very big mistake,” he toldIsraeli newspaper Israel Hayom. “I wanted to call and say don’t do it. These photos and shots. I mean, moving shots of bombs being dropped into buildings in Gaza. And I said, Oh, that’s a terrible portrait. It’s a very bad picture for the world. The world is seeing this … every night, I would watch buildings pour down on people.”

Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are brought to Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, March 25, 2024.

Attempting to read between the lines on Mr Trump’s often-wandering remarks on any topic is an imperfect science, at best. The Trump campaign has denied the interview represents a change in policy, while Richard Grenell, an intelligence official in the Trump administration whom the former president has described as called an “envoy,” described Mr Trump’s comments as “pretty clear” in response to a query from The Independent.

In the days after the brutal attack, which killed 1,200 people and saw more than 200 taken hostage, Mr Trump offered his enthusiastic backing for Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza. But his recent comments, coming after more than 32,000