Trump and Netanyahu meet as pressure to end truce mounts for Israeli PM
Donald Trump is guarded about prospects for the truce, even as he takes credit for pressuring Hamas and Israel into the ceasefire agreement.
US President Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are to meet on Tuesday, as the Israeli prime minister faces competing pressure from his right-wing coalition to end a temporary truce against Hamas militants in Gaza, and from war-weary Israelis who want the remaining hostages home and the 15-month conflict to end.
Mr Trump is guarded about the long-term prospects for the truce, even as he takes credit for pressuring Hamas and Israel into the hostage and ceasefire agreement that came into effect the day before he returned to office last month.
“I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold,” Mr Trump told reporters on Monday.
The leaders’ talks are expected to touch on a long-sought Israel-Saudi Arabia normalisation deal and concerns about Iran’s nuclear programme, but hammering out the second phase of the hostage deal will be at the top of the agenda.
Mr Netanyahu’s arrival in Washington for the first foreign leader visit of Mr Trump’s second term comes as the prime minister’s popular support is lagging.
Mr Netanyahu is in the middle of giving evidence in an ongoing corruption trial that centres on allegations he exchanged favours with media moguls and wealthy associates. He has denied the accusations and said he is the victim of a “witch hunt”.
It is Mr Netanyahu’s first trip outside Israel since the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for him, his former defence minister and Hamas’ dead military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza.
The US does not recognise the ICC’s authority over its citizens or territory.
Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Monday began the daunting work of brokering the next phase of a ceasefire agreement.
Mr Netanyahu said in a statement that the meeting with Mr Witkoff and US national security adviser Michael Waltz was “positive and friendly”.
He said he would send a delegation to Qatar to continue indirect talks with Hamas that are being mediated by the Gulf Arab country, the first confirmation that those negotiations would continue.
Mr Netanyahu also said he would convene his security cabinet to discuss Israel’s demands for the next phase of the ceasefire when he returns to Israel at the end of the week.
Mr Netanyahu is under intense pressure from hard-right members of his governing coalition to abandon the ceasefire and resume fighting in Gaza to eliminate Hamas.
Bezalel Smotrich, one of Mr Netanyahu’s key partners, vows to topple the government if the war is not relaunched, a step that could lead to early elections.
Hamas, which has reasserted control over Gaza since the ceasefire began last month, has said it will not release hostages in the second phase without an end to the war and Israeli forces’ full withdrawal.
Mr Netanyahu, meanwhile, maintains that Israel is committed to victory over Hamas and the return of all hostages captured in the October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.
Einav Zangauker, whose son Matan is among the hostages, called on Mr Trump to use American leverage to keep Mr Netanyahu committed to the agreement.
Matan, 24, is among those who are expected to be included in the second phase of the deal, when all remaining living hostages, including men under the age of 50 and male soldiers, are to be exchanged for a yet-to-be-determined number of Palestinian prisoners.
The second phase is also expected to include the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
“I want President Trump to know there are certain extreme elements from within Israel who are trying to torpedo his vision,” said Mr Zangauker, who travelled to Washington from Israel to join a planned rally on Tuesday outside the White House.
“We are representative of the vast, vast majority of Israel. The ultra-extremists are blackmailing the prime minister to do their bidding.”
Since returning to office, Mr Trump has called for the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, even as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian King Abdullah II have rejected it.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League have joined Egypt and Jordan in rejecting plans to move Palestinians out of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Yet Mr Trump says he can persuade Egypt and Jordan to come around to accept displaced Palestinians because of the significant aid that the US provides Cairo and Amman.
Hard-line right-wing members of Mr Netanyahu’s government have embraced the call to move displaced Palestinians out of Gaza.
Mr Trump sees the war-ravaged territory as “a demolition site” that could take at least 10 to 15 years to rebuild and that it would be “inhumane to force people to live on an uninhabitable plot of land”, according to a US official who briefed reporters.
