President Donald Trump speaks alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout a gathering within the Oval Workplace of the White Home on April 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Netanyahu and Trump are to satisfy once more on Monday.
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Pictures North America
WASHINGTON — Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is because of meet with President Trump on Monday, when they could announce a ceasefire deal for Gaza.
Will probably be Netanyahu’s first go to to the White Home for the reason that two leaders collaborated in an assault on Iran’s nuclear services final month.
Within the wake of the 12-day warfare that Israel fought in opposition to Iran, the primary focus between the 2 leaders was anticipated to be how one can wind down Israel’s warfare with Hamas in Gaza that started shut to 2 years in the past. Netanyahu informed reporters Sunday that there was a possibility to forge new diplomatic ties with extra unspecified international locations. Israel is reportedly in search of a safety pact with its longtime enemy Syria.
Trump mentioned final week on his social media web site that Israel has agreed to a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, and warned Hamas they’d higher settle for it. Hamas this weekend voiced an preliminary constructive response to the newest framework however mentioned it wanted to work out particulars earlier than accepting.
Hamas triggered the present warfare when it attacked Israeli communities bordering the Gaza Strip in October 2023, killing round 1,200 individuals and taking round 250 hostage. Greater than 56,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel air strikes since then, nearly all of them ladies and kids, in response to Gaza well being officers, and Gaza’s cities have been left in ruins.
A brand new ceasefire plan
In response to the ceasefire proposal, Hamas would launch eight dwelling hostages at the beginning of the 60-day ceasefire, and two extra hostages on the fiftieth day of the ceasefire. Israel would launch Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli negotiators headed to Qatar Sunday for ceasefire talks with Hamas. However as with earlier talks which have resulted in stalemate, there are nonetheless main obstacles to beat: the primary one being Hamas’ insistence that the talks result in a everlasting finish to the warfare, a requirement Israel has rejected. Israel has once more mentioned that Hamas is in search of “unacceptable” adjustments to the newest ceasefire proposal.
The deal resembles an analogous one proposed by Israel and the U.S. earlier this 12 months. Israel and Hamas had agreed on a ceasefire that took impact simply as Trump got here into workplace in January, and lasted till Israel renewed assaults in Gaza in March, and stopped all support from coming into the besieged coastal enclave. Meals deliveries solely resumed in late Could below tight Israeli management in a system that the U.N. – which used to run support deliveries – has referred to as “demise traps” for Palestinians making an attempt to entry the handout websites.
However Netanyahu has mentioned Israel’s accomplishments in weakening Iran – a rustic that backed anti-Israeli militant teams throughout the area, akin to Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – have opened alternatives to launch the 50 remaining dwelling and useless hostages nonetheless in captivity in Gaza.
Including to the Israeli public strain to finish the warfare is the massive variety of troopers, 20, killed in Gaza prior to now month alone.
The ceasefire talks have been mediated by Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt. An official from the area who was briefed on the talks however not approved to talk publicly to the media informed NPR that the Israeli delegation in Doha was a largely technical group and included Gal Hirsch, the federal government’s official liable for hostage affairs; Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s private consultant; and officers from the Shin Wager, Israel’s inside safety company, and Mossad, its abroad intelligence company.
The delegation was to debate Hamas’s response to the newest proposal, hoping to achieve a system that reduces its calls for, the official mentioned.
A altering Center East
The warfare in Gaza started on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched a shock assault on Israel that caught the nation off guard, and triggered a cascade of regional occasions which have remodeled the Center East.
On Oct. 8, Hezbollah, the highly effective Iranian-back militant group in Lebanon, began firing missiles into Israel in solidarity with Hamas, triggering a months-long trade of rockets and airstrikes throughout their shared border.
Final fall, Israel launched a devastating assault on Hezbollah that worn out most of its management. Shortly after that, Israeli airstrikes on Iranian weapons shipments to Hezbollah throughout neighboring Syria – on the time, a key ally of Iran – weakened the dictatorship of President Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown final December by rebels.
In June, Netanyahu launched an air warfare in opposition to Iran to destroy its nuclear program, which he mentioned was aimed toward constructing an atomic bomb, one thing Iran denied. Trump ordered a strike by U.S. strategic bombers on websites that Israeli bombs had been unable to destroy, a significant enhance for Netanyahu.
Regardless of Israel’s success in decimating Iran’s allies and damaging its nuclear program, the large demise toll in Gaza has led to rising diplomatic isolation for Israel, together with widespread anti-Israeli protests in Europe and the U.S., and prices of genocide introduced by South Africa within the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice, one thing Israel vehemently denies.
