Vice-President Kamala Harris insisted the Israel Hamas war must "end immediately" while Trump claimed she "hates Israel" and ducked a meeting with Bejamin Netanyahu for a sorority party in the combustive first debate between the pair.

Speaking in Philedelphia, the presidential candidates both pledged to help defend Israel but clashed over who had a stronger record on national security.

Begining her answer with a potted history of the Israel Hamas war, Harris said Israel has a right to defend itself, “but it matters how.”

She said: “Let’s understand how we got here. On October 7, Hamas, a terrorist organisation, slaughtered 1,200 Israelis, many of them young people who were simply attending a concert where women were horribly raped. And so, absolutely… Israel has a right to defend itself...

"And how it does so matters, because it is also true that far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end, it must end immediately, and the way it will end is we need a ceasefire deal and we need the hostages out. So we will continue to work around the clock on that.”

America should “chart a course for a two-state solution” that would ensure security for Israelis and Palestinians, Harris said.

She continued: “The one thing I will assure you always: I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel.

"But we must have a two-state solution, where we can rebuild Gaza, where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve.”

As Harris looked on with an increasingly quizzical expression, Trump claimed that his Democratic opponent “hates Israel”.

“She wouldn’t even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers,” he said.

The event referred to by the Republican candidate was one held in Indiana by Zeta Phi Beta, a sorority historically favoured by black students founded at Harris’s alma mater, Howard University.

The vice-president attended instead of presiding over Netanyahu’s address to Congress but she did subsequently have a meeting with the Israeli prime minister.

"She hates Israel. If she is president I believe Israel will not exist within two years from now. I’ve been pretty good at predictions, but I hope I’m wrong on that one,” Trump continued.

“At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up: Arabs, Jewish people, Israel. Israel will be gone.

“It would have never happened. Iran was broke under Donald Trump… Iran had no money for Hamas, or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different spheres of terror… horrible terror… they were broke.”

Trump added: “Look at what’s happening with the Houthis in Yemen. Look at what’s going on in the Middle East. This would have never happened. I will get that settled and fast.”

Harris, attempting to reassure Arab, Muslim and left wing voters within the Democratic coalition, has tried to chart a more conciliatory course on Israel's war than President Joe Biden.

Speaking in July, she said she would "not be silent" over suffering in Gaza after meeting with Netanyahu in Washington.

“The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said. 

“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”

Trump has meanwhile warned Israel that it is losing international support and encouraged it to “finish up” the war in Gaza.

Without providing specifics, he has repeatedly insisted the conflict would not have started were he in office.

On student protests against the war in America, he has said he will expel immigrants who sympathise with Hamas from the country and revoke the visas of foreign students to tackle antisemitism on campus.

Later in the presidential debate, Harris condemned Trump over his apparent sympathy for white nationalist demonstrators at a 2017 North Carolina protest who chanted “Jews will not replace us”.

“Let’s remember Charlottesville, where there was a mob of people carrying tiki torches, spewing antisemitic hate – and what did the president then at the time say? ‘There were fine people on each side’,” Harris said.

Asked about Israeli hostages and the war in Gaza by a reporter following the debate, Trump added: "It's a shame and Biden and Kamala have done a terrible job. Terrible job.

"Any Jewish person that votes for these people should have their head examined."