Donald Trump’s address to the Israeli Knesset on Monday has triggered a wave of outrage worldwide, after the US president appeared to glorify the destruction of Gaza and praise the regime’s military actions that have left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead.

The speech, delivered just hours after Trump helped formalise a Gaza ceasefire agreement in Sharm el-Sheikh, was condemned across social media as “grotesque” and “inhuman”. Commentators accused him of celebrating genocide rather than peace, as he boasted about the “unbreakable alliance” with Israel and the weapons Washington had supplied throughout the war.

Two Israeli lawmakers, Ofer Cassif and Ayman Odeh, disrupted the session, demanding recognition of a Palestinian state before being forcibly removed from the chamber. Online, journalists and activists described the scene as “a dystopian theatre of war criminals congratulating each other,” with Trump and Israeli leaders cheered by parliamentarians who ignored the suffering in Gaza.

Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed called the moment “a summit of complicity,” while British writer Rachel Shabi denounced it as “an inversion of justice, a celebration of mass death masquerading as diplomacy.” Veteran journalist Hala Jaber wrote that Trump’s applause at the Knesset “was not peace, but a grotesque spectacle of war crimes dressed as victory,” adding that Gaza’s 70,000 dead “were erased from the narrative.”

Despite the ceasefire, critics say the speech exposed the moral void of global politics, where those responsible for mass destruction are honoured instead of held to account. For millions watching, Trump’s words at the Knesset symbolised the ultimate betrayal of justice, turning the memory of Gaza’s devastation into applause.