Trump and his Nobel Peace Prize nominations

As we’ve been reporting, Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu – but this isn’t the first time he’s received such a nomination.

In June, Pakistan formally recommended the US president for the prestigious award, citing his “decisive diplomatic intervention”, following the latest conflict between India and Pakistan earlier this year.

What did Pakistan say?

Pakistan said Trump helped in “averting a broader conflict between the two nuclear states” that would have had “catastrophic consequences for millions of people in the region and beyond”.

“At a moment of heightened regional turbulence, President Trump demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship through robust diplomatic engagement with both Islamabad and New Delhi,” the Pakistani government said in a statement.

But things declined very quickly…

Just a day later, the same government condemned Trump for the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities and said the strikes “constituted a serious violation of international law”.

In a call with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed his concern that the bombings had targeted facilities that were under the safeguards of the IAEA.

What does Trump make of all of this?

In his inaugural address, Donald Trump said his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier” and over the years he has alluded to wanting the Nobel Peace Prize.

He has mentioned the award a number of times in interviews, speeches and campaign rallies and in the final months of his 2024 campaign would complain about Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, saying the former president did not deserve it.

“If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds,” he said.

Last month in a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize.

“It’s too bad. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”

Here are the latest updates on day 676 of the war:

■ Hundreds of people participated in a rally for the hostages’ release in a community near the Gaza border, which began with a convoy of dozens of cars that arrived from central Israel.

■ Israel is in discussions with South Sudan about the possibility of resettling Palestinians who wish to leave the Gaza Strip, six people familiar with the matter told AP.

■ Protesters demonstrated outside a Tel Aviv hotel where members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation leadership are staying.

■ The IDF said it killed five armed terrorists near a vehicle falsely labeled with the World Central Kitchen emblem last week in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah in a targeted strike. WCK confirmed that the vehicle was not theirs, the IDF added.

■ Hundreds of air force veterans demonstrated in Tel Aviv to call for a hostage deal and an end to the war in Gaza. In a separate demonstration in Tel Aviv, dozens, including Einav Zangauker, the mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, made similar calls.

■ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is seeking a deal to release all of the hostages and that partial deals are “behind us,” in an interview with i24 News.

■ Netanyahu said residents should also be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip if they would like to, as people do in other wars around the world, and countries that want to help Palestinians should “open your doors.”

■ The Lebanese News Agency reported an Israeli drone strike in the town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon.

■ U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said Syria’s government pledged to “hold perpetrators of the Suwayda atrocities accountable” and to “fully cooperate with the UN to investigate these crimes, including the horrific violence at Suwayda National Hospital.”

■ Saudi Arabia’s cabinet strongly condemned Israel’s decision to “fully occupy the Gaza Strip and [its] continued perpetration of crimes of starvation, brutal practices and ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinians.

■ 97 aid packages with food for Gaza residents were airdropped into the Gaza Strip “as part of the cooperation between Israel, the UAE, Germany, Belgium, France and Italy,” the IDF reported.

■ Three people were arrested on suspicion of splashing red paint at the entrance to the Israeli Embassy and smashing the entry door in The Hague, Netherlands.

■ The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said hospitals in the Strip recorded 89 deaths and 513 injuries from Israeli attacks over the past day, including 31 killed while trying to obtain aid and five dead from hunger.

The Brief July 8, 2025 Netanyahu backs Trump’s vision for Gaza, what made the Texas floods so devastating, and more Play icon 00:00 Skip backward 15 seconds Length: Long Speed: 1.0 x Skip forward 15 seconds TIME AI Logo Powered by Scale logo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday backed a proposal by President Donald Trump to relocate Palestinians from Gaza and turn the war-ravaged coastal enclave into a luxury waterfront development—a plan that has drawn international condemnation and could further complicate fragile cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas.

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“It’s called free choice,” Netanyahu told reporters before a private dinner with the President in the White House. “If people want to stay, they can stay. But if they want to leave, they should be able to leave.” Netanyahu added that Israel was working “very closely” with the United States to identify countries that would be willing to accept displaced Palestinians from Gaza, and suggested that discussions with several nations were already “getting close” to fruition. Trump, seated across from the Israeli leader, said that “we’ve had great cooperation” from countries surrounding Israel and added that “something good will happen.” Netanyahu’s comments marked the most explicit endorsement yet of a controversial idea Trump first floated earlier this year: that Gaza could be emptied of its Palestinian population and redeveloped into what he once called the “Riviera of the Middle East.” The proposal was met with quick backlash from U.S. allies, Arab leaders, and human rights organizations, who said it amounted to ethnic cleansing under the guise of economic development. The White House later attempted to walk back elements of Trump’s language.

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But Netanyahu’s renewed support for the vision—paired with his insistence on rejecting the creation of a Palestinian state—offers a stark preview of the kind of “peace” he and Trump may ultimately seek: one in which the Palestinian population is displaced or resettled abroad. It also represents a sharp break from decades of U.S. policy, which has long held that the path toward peace in the Middle East must include a two-state solution—an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel. Netanyahu made clear that any peace deal to end the war with Hamas should not include the recognition of a Palestinian state. “I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us,” Netanyahu said. “And that means that certain powers like overall security will always remain in our hands.” “We’ll work out a peace with our Palestinian neighbors, those who don’t want to destroy us,” he added, “and we’ll work out a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands. Now, people will say, ‘It’s not a complete state, it’s not a state. It’s not that — we don’t care.”

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Read more: Experts Break Down the Biggest Roadblocks to the Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Negotiations Negotiators will meet in Doha later this week for cease-fire and hostage talks. Though Trump has said he believes a deal could be reached “during the coming week,” Netanyahu’s endorsement of mass relocation could deepen mistrust among Palestinian negotiators and potentially derail progress. “It shouldn’t be a prison,” Netanyahu said of Gaza, which had a pre-war population of 2 million. “It should be an open place.” The war in Gaza, now in its 21st month, began after Hamas launched a terror attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Since then, Israel’s military campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and displaced more than 80% of the population. U.N. agencies warn that half a million people face imminent famine.

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The Prime Minister’s remarks echoed a growing sentiment within his far-right coalition, where calls to permanently remove Palestinians from Gaza have become more open in recent months.

Read more: Netanyahu Will Get a Warmer Welcome in Washington than he Would in Israel

The private dinner capped a day of closed-door diplomacy for Netanyahu, who also met earlier with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday. The two leaders appeared to use the dinner to take a victory lap after the United States and Israel carried out coordinated airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last month. Before taking questions from reporters, Netanyahu said that he had nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Here are the latest updates on day 676 of the war:

■ Hundreds of people participated in a rally for the hostages’ release in a community near the Gaza border, which began with a convoy of dozens of cars that arrived from central Israel.

■ Israel is in discussions with South Sudan about the possibility of resettling Palestinians who wish to leave the Gaza Strip, six people familiar with the matter told AP.

■ Protesters demonstrated outside a Tel Aviv hotel where members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation leadership are staying.

■ The IDF said it killed five armed terrorists near a vehicle falsely labeled with the World Central Kitchen emblem last week in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah in a targeted strike. WCK confirmed that the vehicle was not theirs, the IDF added.

■ Hundreds of air force veterans demonstrated in Tel Aviv to call for a hostage deal and an end to the war in Gaza. In a separate demonstration in Tel Aviv, dozens, including Einav Zangauker, the mother of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker, made similar calls.

■ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is seeking a deal to release all of the hostages and that partial deals are “behind us,” in an interview with i24 News.

■ Netanyahu said residents should also be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip if they would like to, as people do in other wars around the world, and countries that want to help Palestinians should “open your doors.”

■ The Lebanese News Agency reported an Israeli drone strike in the town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon.

■ U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said Syria’s government pledged to “hold perpetrators of the Suwayda atrocities accountable” and to “fully cooperate with the UN to investigate these crimes, including the horrific violence at Suwayda National Hospital.”

■ Saudi Arabia’s cabinet strongly condemned Israel’s decision to “fully occupy the Gaza Strip and [its] continued perpetration of crimes of starvation, brutal practices and ethnic cleansing” against the Palestinians.

■ 97 aid packages with food for Gaza residents were airdropped into the Gaza Strip “as part of the cooperation between Israel, the UAE, Germany, Belgium, France and Italy,” the IDF reported.

■ Three people were arrested on suspicion of splashing red paint at the entrance to the Israeli Embassy and smashing the entry door in The Hague, Netherlands.

■ The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said hospitals in the Strip recorded 89 deaths and 513 injuries from Israeli attacks over the past day, including 31 killed while trying to obtain aid and five dead from hunger.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the proposed IDF takeover of Gaza City would entail “allowing” its population to leave, and encouraged other countries to take in Palestinians displaced by the war, in an interview with i24 News on Tuesday.

On Friday, Israel’s security cabinet approved expanding military operations in Gaza and occupying Gaza City. Discussing the army’s plan to take over central Gaza, Netanyahu told i24 News that Israel would first allow the population to leave before the IDF enters with ground forces. Gaza City, in central Gaza, is Hamas’ last stronghold, he said.

Open gallery view Palestinians flock to airdropped humanitarian aid packages in western Gaza City, Thursday. Credit: Mahmoud Abu Hamda/Anadolu

The prime minister also said all residents should be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip if they would like, like in Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan. For countries that want to help Palestinians, he called on them to “open your doors.”

Netanyahu said Israel is currently seeking a deal to release all of the hostages and that partial deals are “behind us.” Israeli officials told Haaretz on Monday that chances for a deal were slim, despite Israel and Hamas publicly signalling a willingness to restart cease-fire talks.

The prime minister also accused former officials and the “Kaplan movement” of spreading misinformation. He added that some military leaders had opposed entering Rafah, assassinating Hezbollah’s former secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah and carrying out the pager operation in Lebanon.

Netanyahu claimed he was scared for his own safety and the safety of his family, with calls to murder him and his family having been normalized. The left was given more leeway, the prime minister said.

Speaking about the recent war with Iran, Netanyahu said Israel would have carried out the strike on the nuclear program with or without U.S. support, but praised U.S. President Donald Trump for strengthening ties with Israel.