Trump tells Jewish voters Israel would be 'gone' under Kamala Harris presidency

US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has warned a group of Jewish donors on Thursday that if Kamala Harris wins the presidency, Israel would be "gone", adding that he would make sure Israel exists "for thousands of years".

Speaking to a crowd of Jewish Republican voters, Trump claimed that a presidency under Harris would be terrible for Israel telling the crowd that they would be "abandoned".

The Republican candidate and former president also told the Republican Jewish Coalition annual conference in Las Vegas he would ban asylum seekers from "terror-infested" areas such as Gaza and called out the US college pro-Palestine demonstrators as "pro-Hamas thugs".

While Trump sketched out few concrete Middle Eastern policy proposals for a second term, he painted a potential Harris presidency in cataclysmic terms for Israel.

"You're going to be abandoned if she becomes president. And I think you need to explain that to your people... You're not going to have an Israel if she becomes president," Trump said without providing evidence for such a claim.

"If they win, Israel is gone. Just remember that. If they win, Israel is gone," he went on.

His inflammatory comments come as the two parties approach the final months of an election campaign that has been marked by high drama, including an assassination attempt on Trump and the surprise pull-out of President Biden.

Tuning in via a livestream to the Jewish group’s conference from New York, Trump said he would "keep America safe" and repeated his claims that the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel would not have happened under his tenure.

He also took a swipe at Jews who support Democrats, saying they need to have their head "examined" and told the Republican Jewish Coalition that they had been "very bad to you".

The Republican Jewish Coalition describes itself as a political group which fosters ties between the Jewish community and Republican lawmakers.

Its lobbying efforts include the US-Israel relationship, Iran and antisemitism, as well as domestic issues, according to its website. The group was reportedly highly critical of Barak Obama’s administration claiming it promoted "anti-Israel biases".

The US has the largest Jewish population outside Israel and both presidential candidates will be eager to pick up support from the community.

While Trump has been vocal in his support for Israel, controversially moving the US embassy to Jerusalem during his presidency, he has also had more recent rifts with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he criticised his handling of the Gaza war.

As vice president, Harris has stuck closely to Biden's support for Israel's war in Gaza and rejected calls from some in the Democratic Party that Washington should rethink sending weapons to Israel because of the heavy Palestinian death toll in Gaza.

The Republican’s Thursday comments were refuted by the Harris campaign who said in response that Trump has "made it obvious he would turn on Israel in a moment if it suited his personal interests," US outlet Politico reported.

Trump has previously commended white nationalist neo-Nazi groups who chanted "Jews will not replace us" as "very fine people" in the wake of an alt-right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.

(with Agencies)