United States President Donald Trump has met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the White Home for a second time in 24 hours to debate a potential ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The unscheduled talks on Tuesday night lasted simply over an hour, with no media entry, and got here as Israeli forces killed a minimum of 95 Palestinians in Gaza.
The 2 males had additionally met for a number of hours throughout a dinner on the White Home on Monday, throughout Netanyahu’s third go to to the US because the president started his second time period on January 20.
Forward of the talks on Tuesday, Trump mentioned he can be talking with Netanyahu “virtually solely” about Gaza.
“We gotta get that solved. Gaza is – it’s a tragedy, and he desires to get it solved, and I need to get it solved, and I feel the opposite aspect desires to,” he mentioned.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, mentioned “little or no info” has come out from the most recent talks, so “it has been troublesome to determine precisely what’s occurring”.
“However the truth that it was so hermetically sealed, the truth that there was no clear readout of what was mentioned, the truth that the assembly lasted simply over an hour – all of it could point out that there’s some type of stumbling block, one thing that’s clouding the optimistic place that the 2 leaders have adopted over the previous 24 hours,” Hanna mentioned.
Shortly earlier than Trump met Netanyahu, his particular envoy to the Center East, Steve Witkoff, recommended a ceasefire deal in Gaza is shut and mentioned Washington hopes to see an settlement finalised by the top of the week.
He mentioned the problems protecting Israel and Hamas from agreeing had now dropped to at least one from 4.
“We’re hopeful that by the top of this week, we’ll have an settlement that may convey us right into a 60-day ceasefire. Ten reside hostages will likely be launched. 9 deceased will likely be launched,” Witkoff instructed reporters at a gathering of Trump’s Cupboard.
However Netanyahu, talking shortly afterwards, throughout a gathering with the speaker of the Republican-controlled Home of Representatives, mentioned Israel’s marketing campaign within the Palestinian enclave was not finished and that negotiators are “definitely working” on a ceasefire.
“We’ve got nonetheless to complete the job in Gaza, launch all our hostages, get rid of and destroy Hamas’s navy and authorities capabilities,” the Israeli chief mentioned.
Israel’s plan for Gaza
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan, mentioned Israeli media declare Netanyahu is dealing with “excessive stress” from Trump to succeed in a deal on Gaza.
“However nonetheless, there’s been no breakthrough,” she mentioned from the Jordanian capital, Amman.
“Israeli media can be speaking a couple of delay within the journey plans of Witkoff to Doha, though earlier within the night time, he had sounded very optimistic about probably reaching a deal. As a result of in keeping with him, just one difficulty remained problematic – which is, ‘The place will the Israeli military redeploy to?’” Odeh mentioned.
“Now, that is essential, as a result of Israel desires to take care of management over town of Rafah in southern Gaza. In line with the Israeli minister of defence, Israel plans to construct a tent metropolis in Rafah, the place it’ll focus the inhabitants, management who enters, not enable anybody to depart, after which push the inhabitants out of Gaza to implement, in keeping with the Israelis, the Trump plan of depopulating Gaza and taking on the enclave,” she added.
The plan outlined by the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, requires the preliminary forcible switch of some 600,000 Palestinians to the tent metropolis, adopted by the rest of the enclave’s 2.1 million folks.
Critics say the plan would then result in Palestinians being forcibly transferred to different nations.
Annelle Sheline, a analysis fellow within the Center East programme on the Quincy Institute, described the tent cities as “focus camps” and mentioned the Trump administration is unlikely to intervene within the Israeli plan.
“Washington has important affect over the small print, though we did see Trump demure when requested if he would assist the switch of the involuntary switch of Palestinians out of Gaza, saying that folks ought to look to Nanyahu for that,” Sheline mentioned.
“We all know the folks Trump surrounds himself with are usually sycophants and individuals who inform him what he likes to listen to. So I don’t anticipate there are a lot of folks in Trump’s orbit who’re telling him, not solely would this be a horrific crime in opposition to humanity, to not solely facilitate genocide, however then switch the survivors exterior of their land,” she mentioned, including that each one of it additionally does “implicate the USA”.
For his half, Trump has strongly supported Netanyahu, even wading into home Israeli politics by criticising prosecutors over a corruption trial in opposition to the Israeli chief on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust costs, which Netanyahu denies.
Netanyahu has in the meantime praised Trump, saying that there has by no means been nearer coordination between the US and Israel in his nation’s historical past, and even nominated the US chief for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Israel’s battle in Gaza has killed a minimum of 57,575 Palestinians and wounded 136,879 others. Most of Gaza’s inhabitants has been displaced by the battle, and almost half one million persons are dealing with famine inside months, in keeping with United Nations estimates.
An estimated 1,139 folks have been killed in Israel through the Hamas-led assaults of October 7, 2023, and greater than 200 have been taken captive.
Some 50 captives stay in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.
