Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington for Gaza ceasefire talks
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to begin talks today on brokering a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, his office said, as he visits the new Trump administration in Washington.
Ahead of his departure, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, without defining what this would mean in practical terms, contending with Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets with the US President on Tuesday.
It will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritisation Netanyahu called “telling”.
“I think it’s a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” he said before boarding his flight.
He was welcomed to the US capital on Sunday night by Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who stressed the coming Trump-Netanyahu meeting would strengthen “the deep alliance between Israel and the United States and will enhance our cooperation”.
Netanyahu’s office said he would begin discussions with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday over terms for the second phase of the truce.
The initial, 42-day phase of the deal is due to end next month. The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Key events
Benjamin Netanyahu, who was one of the first to congratulate Donald Trump when he beat Kamala Harris in the November US presidential election, has called the Republican president the “best friend Israel has ever had in the White House”.
During Trump’s first term, he delivered significant diplomatic wins for the Israeli prime minister, including recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019 and supporting the Abraham accords with Gulf states.
Last month, Trump said he had ordered the resumption of shipments of some of the largest bombs to Israel after Joe Biden had paused delivery of them over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza.
In this story, my colleague Peter Beaumont writes that, while allies, Netanyahu and Trump have competing agendas coming into their meeting tomorrow. Here is an extract from his piece:
On Trump’s side is the apparent desire to have quiet in the Middle East to pursue his policy of widening the 2020 Abraham accords – in which Israel established relations with Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates during his first term – to include Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has made clear that any progress depends on an end to the conflict in Gaza or the establishment of a path towards Palestinian statehood.
On Netanyahu’s side, the objective – according to Israeli officials who briefed the Axios news website – is to understand where Trump stands on the planned start of negotiations for the second phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal, which Netanyahu was reluctantly pushed into by Trump.
Those talks are supposed to begin on Monday, the 16th day of phase one of the ceasefire. But it now looks unlikely they will start until after the Trump-Netanyahu meeting, which has been characterised as an attempt to find a joint US-Israeli position going into the talks.
Other key issues likely to dominate the meeting are a “day after” plan for Gaza, not least how it will be run and by whom, and what position to take on Iran.
Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington for Gaza ceasefire talks
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to begin talks today on brokering a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, his office said, as he visits the new Trump administration in Washington.
Ahead of his departure, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, without defining what this would mean in practical terms, contending with Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets with the US President on Tuesday.
It will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritisation Netanyahu called “telling”.
“I think it’s a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” he said before boarding his flight.
He was welcomed to the US capital on Sunday night by Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who stressed the coming Trump-Netanyahu meeting would strengthen “the deep alliance between Israel and the United States and will enhance our cooperation”.
Netanyahu’s office said he would begin discussions with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday over terms for the second phase of the truce.
The initial, 42-day phase of the deal is due to end next month. The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
