Trump meets Netanyahu twice, hope for Gaza ceasefire

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has left the White House after a second meeting with US President Donald Trump as Gaza ceasefire talks continue.

Donald Trump has met for a second time in two days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss Gaza, as the US president’s Middle East envoy says Israel and Hamas are closing their differences on a ceasefire deal.

The Israeli leader departed the White House on Tuesday evening after a meeting of just over an hour with Trump in the Oval Office, with no press access.

The two men also met for several hours during a dinner at the White House on Monday during Netanyahu’s third US visit since the president began his second term on January 20.

Netanyahu met with Vice President JD Vance and then visited the US Capitol on Tuesday, and is due back in Congress on Wednesday to meet with US Senate leaders.

He told reporters after a meeting with the Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson that while he did not think Israel’s campaign in the Palestinian enclave was done, negotiators are “certainly working” on a ceasefire.

“We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas’ military and government capabilities,” Netanyahu said.

Shortly after Netanyahu spoke, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said the issues keeping Israel and Hamas from agreeing had dropped to one from four and he hoped to reach a temporary ceasefire agreement this week.

“We are hopeful that by the end of this week, we’ll have an agreement that will bring us into a 60-day ceasefire. Ten live hostages will be released. Nine deceased will be released,” Witkoff told reporters at a meeting of Trump’s cabinet.

A delegation from Qatar, which has been hosting indirect talks between Israeli negotiators and the Hamas Palestinian militant group, met with senior White House officials for several hours before Netanyahu’s arrival on Tuesday, Axios reported, citing a source familiar with the details.

The White House had no immediate comment on the report.

The Gaza war erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.

Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry. Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war and nearly half a million people are facing famine within months, according to United Nations estimates.

Trump had strongly supported Netanyahu, even wading into domestic Israeli politics by criticising prosecutors over a corruption trial against the Israeli leader on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges that Netanyahu denies.

In his remarks to reporters at the US Congress, Netanyahu praised Trump, saying there has never been closer coordination between the US and Israel in his country’s history.

In Hebrew, speaking to Israelis, he said: “I held an additional meeting today with President Trump in the White House, and afterwards, a brief meeting with Vice President Vance.

We focused on the efforts to release our hostages. We are not relenting, even for a moment, and this is made possible due to the military pressure by our heroic soldiers.

Unfortunately, this effort has exacted a painful price from us, the loss of the best of our sons.

But we are determined to achieve all of our objectives: The release of all of our hostages – the living and the deceased, and the elimination of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, thereby ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel.

We also discussed the implications and possibilities of the great victory that we achieved over Iran.

Opportunities have been opened here for expanding the circle of peace, for expanding the Abraham Accords. We are working on this with full vigour.

I also conveyed to President Trump your appreciation, citizens of Israel, for supporting us, for the determined action he took and for the joint effort that we are making today to bring a great future to the Middle East and to the State of Israel.”

Reuters/GPO