Trump on Israel: ‘I do want them to use good judgment’

President Trump on Wednesday morning cautioned Israel to “use good judgement” in its ongoing military operations against Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group backed by Iran.

The president made the comment to the press during a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday amid the Group of 7 (G7) summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, this week.

Israel is still exchanging strikes with Hezbollah after the U.S. signed a framework deal on Monday to begin negotiations to wind down the Iran war. The ongoing military campaign goes against the wishes of the Trump administration, which demanded that Israel halt its attacks on the country in order to secure this deal.

Trump criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend, claiming that Israel’s strikes against the militant group nearly broke the U.S.’s negotiations with Iran.

“Why did Bibi have to do a f—ing attack? I was so pissed off. I let him know. He has no f—ing judgement,” Trump told Axios, referring to the Israeli leader by his nickname.

During a press conference later on Wednesday, Trump praised Netanyahu as “an amazing prime minister,” but he acknowledged their “little dispute over Lebanon.”

“I said, you can do a little softer touch, Bibi,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.”

The president called the Lebanon peace deal “a very small piece of the puzzle” that “makes a lot of noise.” He appeared to punt the work on this deal to other regional partners.

“Israel can do a much better job on it. Syria would love to do it,” he added.

Several G7 leaders also stressed a commitment to resolving the conflict in Lebanon, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney telling CNN in an interview on Tuesday that the U.S.-Iran deal “sets the groundwork for a solution” in the country.

“Of course, it has to be followed through, it has to be implemented, and I think one of the things is: The president helped create that deal … the rest of the G7 and the broader community need to help implement it.”