US President Donald Trump was “caught off guard” by Israeli army actions in Syria final week, based on White Home spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, who confirmed he subsequently mentioned the matter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Israel carried out army operations in Damascus and the Druze-majority metropolis of Sweida, stating their intention was to stress Syrian forces to withdraw from the world the place ongoing conflicts persist.Leavitt knowledgeable reporters at a press briefing that Trump “was caught off guard by the bombing in Syria and in addition the bombing of a Catholic church in Gaza,” including that “In each accounts, the president shortly known as the prime minister to rectify these conditions.”Netanyahu’s latest White Home go to marked his third since Trump’s return to workplace on January 20. Leavitt famous, “The president enjoys an excellent working relationship with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and stays in, you understand, frequent communication with him,” including “When it got here to Syria, we noticed a de-escalation there.”A US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Syria commenced on Friday. The identical day, PM Netanyahu contacted Pope Leo concerning the Gaza church strike, attributing it to a “stray missile.”In Could, Trump met Syria’s Islamist president Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia after easing quite a few long-standing US sanctions on Damascus. Trump subsequently praised al-Sharaa, who beforehand led a major armed group previously related to Al Qaeda that overthrew the Syrian authorities in December. Following al-Sharaa’s rise to energy, the US eliminated the bounty on his head.