Trump, Netanyahu meet for a second time to discuss a Gaza ceasefire

Al Jazeera

3 days ago

United States President Donald Trump has met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for a second time in 24 hours to discuss a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The unscheduled talks on Tuesday evening lasted just over an hour with no press access.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Trump said he would be talking 'almost exclusively' about Gaza.
'We gotta get that solved. Gaza is a- it's a tragedy, and he wants to get it solved, and I want to get it solved, and I think the other side wants to,' Trump added.
The two men also met for several hours during a dinner at the White House on Monday during Netanyahu's third visit to the US since the president began his second term on January 20.
Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said the latest meeting was 'tightly sealed with very little information coming out'.
'The fact that it was so hermetically sealed, the fact that there has been no clear readout of exactly what was discussed, the fact that the meeting lasted just over an hour before the prime minister returned to his residence – all of it may indicate that there's some kind of stumbling block, something that is clouding the optimistic position that the two leaders have adopted over the past 24 hours,' Hanna said.
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.
Israel's war in Gaza has killed at least 57,575 Palestinians and wounded 136,879 others. 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.
An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Some 50 captives remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.
Trump had strongly supported Netanyahu, even wading into domestic Israeli politics by criticizing 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