The White House sent a stiff rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Israeli strike on senior Hamas commander Raad Saad on Saturday, two US officials told a US outlet.
“The White House message to Netanyahu was, ‘If you want to ruin your reputation and show that you don’t abide by agreements, be our guest, but we won’t allow you to ruin President Trump’s reputation after he brokered the deal in Gaza,’” one of the US officials told Axios on Monday.
The US told Netanyahu that Israel violated the ceasefire with the strike, the report said.
The officials told the US outlet that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, top envoy Steve Witkoff, and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner are fed up with Netanyahu. “Steve and Jared are pissed by Israeli inflexibility around several Gaza-related issues,” said one of the Americans.
Israel fears Washington may push to advance to the next phase of the ceasefire, even if Master Sgt. Ran Gvilli, the last deceased hostage held in Gaza, is not returned, and before a clear operational plan is established for Hamas’s disarmament, the Ynet news site reported last week.
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The second phase laid out in Trump’s plan for the Strip outlines governing arrangements for the enclave. It is expected to begin soon, though Israel is still awaiting the return of Gvili, which is to be completed under the first phase.
The next step of the plan envisions Hamas disarming and Israel withdrawing as a multinational force deploys across the Strip at the same time that a Palestinian technocratic body begins managing Gaza’s day-to-day affairs.
US President Donald Trump talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset, October 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
The reported allegations by the administration came two weeks before Netanyahu and Trump are scheduled to meet at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to requests for comment.
An Israeli official told Axios that the White House is indeed displeased, but sent a relatively restrained message that “certain Arab countries” saw the assassination as a violation of the ceasefire. The officials added that it was Hamas that had violated the ceasefire by carrying out attacks on soldiers and trying to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
But the White House felt that Israel was unnecessarily angering potential Arab partners and would not move on from the war in Gaza to a new era of peace-making, according to US officials who spoke to Axios.
Over the last two years, Netanyahu has become “a global pariah. He should ask himself why [Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-] Sissi refuses to meet him and why, five years after the Abraham Accords, he still hasn’t been invited to visit the UAE,” a US official said. “The Trump administration is doing a lot of hard work to fix it. But if Netanyahu doesn’t want to take the steps that are needed to de-escalate, we are not going to waste our time on trying to expand the Abraham Accords.”
A government official told The Times of Israel on Friday that the premier is actively seeking a sit-down with Sissi, but Cairo still fears that Israel has not ruled out efforts to push Palestinians southwards in the Strip toward Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula — a possibility it considers a red line and a national security threat.
Smoke rises from scorched cars in a scrapyard that Israeli settlers set ablaze the night before, in the town of Hawara near the West Bank city of Nablus, November 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
The White House is also upset over settler violence in the West Bank, according to a senior US official. “The US doesn’t ask Netanyahu to compromise Israel’s security. We ask him not to take steps that are perceived in the Arab world as provocations,” the official told Axios.
Violence by extremist settler activists has ramped up in recent months during the olive harvest season, with repeated incidents of extremists beating Palestinian civilians and carrying out arson attacks and other forms of violence.
Dozens of illegal outposts have been established around the West Bank since the beginning of the war with Hamas in Gaza.
The heightened violence has generated international condemnation, with Rubio expressing concern last month over the attacks.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
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