President Donald Trump turned on Israel's Lebanon campaign Tuesday at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, declaring that Syria could do a "better job" against Hezbollah than the Israeli military and that he had urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let Damascus take the lead.

The remarks, delivered alongside Qatar's emir, came two days before a U.S.-Iran framework deal is set to be signed in Switzerland and as Israel and Damascus publicly pushed back on the proposal.

Trump told reporters that Israel had been "fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed."

"You don't have to knock down an apartment house every time you're looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they're not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you," he said.

"I didn't like that two hours before we signed the agreement that there was an attack in Lebanon, in Beirut. I didn't like that, not at all," Trump said, calling the strike "vicious."

He pointed to Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former Islamist rebel group leader whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham coalition ousted Bashar Assad in December 2024, as a more effective option.

"I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah because, to be honest with you, I think they'd do a better job of doing it," Trump said.

"He's very capable, and he's been very good for me. He's protected everything that I've asked for."

Damascus has rejected the idea.

Ahmad Zidan, an adviser to al-Sharaa, said Syria is "not concerned with any military intervention" in Lebanon and instead favors strengthening Lebanese state institutions.

Al-Sharaa himself dismissed reports of a Syrian incursion as "completely false." Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has voiced confidence Damascus will stay out.

Trump's comments landed two days before the formal signing of the U.S.-Iran memorandum in Switzerland, a deal Iran says includes an end to Israeli operations in Lebanon.

Israel disputes that reading.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israel Defense Forces would remain in "security zones" in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza "without any time limit," and told reporters Israel "will not withdraw" despite "all the existing pressures and those that will still come."

The fighting has been costly.

The National, citing Lebanese authorities, reported at least 3,783 people killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon since hostilities resumed in early March, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs put displacement at more than 1.2 million as of mid-April.

The next test comes Friday in Switzerland, where Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff reportedly are set to sign the framework opening a 60-day window for nuclear talks.