Trump pushes Gaza deal in White House meeting with Netanyahu

US President Donald Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday for high-stakes talks aimed at pushing an elusive Gaza peace plan over the line.

Trump says a deal to end the nearly two-year war in Gaza, free hostages held by Hamas and disarm the Palestinian militant group is effectively done following talks with Arab leaders last week.

He teased a possible breakthrough on Sunday, saying on his Truth Social network: “ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, FIRST TIME EVER. WE WILL GET IT DONE!!!”

However, Netanyahu has given little reason for optimism in recent days.

He vowed in a defiant UN address on Friday to “finish the job” against Hamas, and promised to block a Palestinian state that key Western nations recently recognised.

The Israeli premier also appears reluctant to halt a military offensive in Gaza City from which hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee in recent weeks.

It will be Netanyahu’s fourth visit to the White House since Trump returned to power in January, as the US president struggles to end a conflict he said he could solve in days.

Normally a staunch ally of Netanyahu, Trump has shown recent signs of frustration.

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He warned Netanyahu last week against annexing the West Bank, as some of the Israeli premier’s cabinet members have urged, and also opposed Israel’s recent strike on Hamas members in key US ally Qatar.

Families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza urged Trump to uphold his proposed Gaza ceasefire deal.

“We respectfully ask you to stand firm against any attempts to sabotage the deal you have brought forth,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote in an open letter to the US president.

“The stakes are too high and our families have waited too long for any interference to derail this progress.”

The outcome of the meeting was likely to depend on how much pressure Trump was willing to put on Netanyahu to swallow a deal on which both Israel and Hamas are still not sold, said Natan Sachs, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

“Netanyahu has a clear preference for continuing the war and defeating Hamas, but I don’t think it’s impossible for Trump to convince him otherwise,” Sachs told AFP.

“It would need a lot of pressure from Trump and a very clear and sustained strategy.”

The two leaders will address a joint news conference at 1:15 pm US Eastern Time (1715 GMT) on Monday.

‘Finish the job’

Trump sounded increasingly optimistic last week about the prospects of a deal after meeting Arab and Muslim-majority leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

A reported 21-point, US-led deal has begun to take shape in recent days that would include the disarmament of Hamas, the release of all hostages and a ceasefire.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was floated in some media reports as a possible leader of a transitional authority for Gaza under the US proposals.

The body known as the “Gaza International Transitional Authority” would operate with the support of the UN and Gulf nations before eventually handing control to a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA).

Netanyahu, during his UN speech, firmly rejected the idea of the Ramallah-based PA having a role in governing Gaza, which it did until Hamas seized power in 2007.

He expressed deep scepticism on Sunday that the PA could be reformed.

“I think that the credibility or the likelihood of… a reformed Palestinian Authority that changes completely its stripes, that accepts a Jewish state, that teaches its children to embrace the coexistence and friendship with the Jewish state, rather than living their lives to annihilate it… Well, good luck,” he told Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing” program.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s grisly October 7, 2023, attack, which killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally from Israeli official figures, in the deadliest day in the country’s history.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 66,005 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP