By Andrea Shalal and Alexander Cornwell
WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, while Israeli officials hold indirect talks with Hamas, aimed at a U.S.-brokered Gaza hostage-release and ceasefire deal.
Trump said on Sunday there was a good chance such a deal could be reached this week. The right-wing Israeli leader said he believed his discussions with Trump would help advance talks underway in Qatar.
It will be Netanyahu’s third White House visit since Trump returned to office in January, and follows Trump’s order last month for U.S. air strikes against Iran and a subsequent ceasefire halting the 12-day Israel-Iran war.
Israel is hoping that its 12-day war with Iran will also pave the way for new diplomatic opportunities in the region.
Avi Dichter, an Israeli minister and a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said he expected Trump’s meeting with the Israeli leader would go beyond Gaza to include the possibility of normalising ties with Lebanon, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
“I think it will first of all be focused on a term we have often used but now has real meaning; a new Middle East,” he told Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Monday.
Ahead of the visit, Netanyahu told reporters he would thank Trump for the U.S. air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, and said Israeli negotiators were driving for a deal on Gaza in Doha, Qatar’s capital.
Israel and Hamas were set to hold a second day of indirect talks in Qatar on Monday. An Israeli official described the atmosphere so far at the Gaza talks, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, as positive. Palestinian officials said that initial meetings on Sunday had ended inconclusively.
A second Israeli official said the issue of humanitarian aid had been discussed in Qatar, without providing further details.
The U.S.-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the war entirely. Hamas has long demanded a final end to the war before it would free remaining hostages; Israel has insisted it would not agree to halt fighting until all hostages are free and Hamas dismantled.
Trump told reporters on Friday it was good that Hamas said it had responded in “a positive spirit” to a U.S.-brokered 60-day Gaza ceasefire proposal, and noted that a deal could be reached this week.
Some of Netanyahu’s hardline coalition partners oppose ending the fighting but, with Israelis having become increasingly weary of the 21-month-old war, his government is expected to back a ceasefire.
A ceasefire at the start of this year ended in March, and talks to revive it have so far been fruitless. Meanwhile, Israel has intensified its military campaign in Gaza and sharply restricted food distribution.
“God willing, a truce would take place,” Mohammed Al Sawalheh, a 30-year-old Palestinian displaced from Jabalia in northern Gaza, told Reuters on Sunday after an Israeli air strike overnight.
“We cannot see a truce while people are dying. We want a truce that would stop this bloodshed.”
The Gaza war erupted when Hamas attacked southern Israel in October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Some 50 hostages remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry. 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.
TRUMP LASHED OUT AT ISRAELI PROSECUTORS
Trump has been strongly supportive of Netanyahu, even wading into domestic Israeli politics last month by lashing out at prosecutors over a corruption trial against the Israeli leader on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges Netanyahu denies.
Trump, who has faced his own legal troubles, argued last week that the judicial process would interfere with Netanyahu’s ability to conduct talks with Hamas and Iran.
Trump said he expected to discuss Iran and its nuclear ambitions with Netanyahu, lauding the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as a tremendous success. On Friday, he told reporters that he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently, although Iran could restart efforts elsewhere.
Trump insisted on Friday that he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, and said Tehran wanted to meet with him. Iran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington, Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv and Maayan Lubell in JerusalemAdditional reporting by Mahmoud Issa in GazaEditing by Richard Chang and Peter Graff)
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