Tuesday’s meeting at the White House will be Trump’s first with a foreign leader since returning to office.
US and Arab mediators are initiating the challenging task of facilitating the next stage of an agreement to de-escalate the conflict in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of numerous hostages held by militants.
Aspirations for a bigger deal
Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy of Trump, got involved in the year-long ceasefire negotiations during the concluding weeks, contributing to the successful finalization of the agreement. He recently held discussions with Netanyahu in Israel and they were scheduled to formally commence discussions on the subsequent phase in Washington on Monday.
During his first term, Trump orchestrated normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab nations, and there are speculations that he is aiming for a broader and potentially groundbreaking deal that involves Israel establishing diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.
But the kingdom, which resisted similar entreaties from the Biden administration, has said it would only agree to such a deal if the war ends and there is a credible pathway to a Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Netanyahu’s government is opposed to Palestinian statehood, and a key partner, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to leave the governing coalition if the war is not resumed next month. That would raise the likelihood of early elections in which Netanyahu could be voted out.
In pictures: Celebrations erupt after ceasefire announced
Violence in the West Bank
Even as the Gaza ceasefire has held for two weeks, Israel has ramped up operations in the occupied West Bank. On Sunday, the military said it was expanding an operation focused on the volatile city of Jenin to the town of Tamun.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 73-year-old man was shot dead by Israeli troops in Jenin early Sunday. There was no immediate comment from the military.
The ministry had earlier reported five killed, including a 16-year-old, in Israeli airstrikes overnight.
The military said it killed two militants — one of whom had been freed as part of the weeklong Gaza ceasefire in November 2023 — in an airstrike on a village near Jenin. It said the two were planning an imminent attack, and that additional strikes targeted two other militant cells.
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since the start of the war in Gaza, with Israel launching near-daily military arrest raids. There has also been a rise in settler violence against Palestinians and Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
