WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump hosted Benjamin Netanyahu for dinner at the White House on Monday as he pressed the Israeli prime minister to end the devastating Gaza war.
Netanyahu’s third visit since Trump’s return to power comes at a crucial time, with the US president hoping to capitalize on the momentum from a recent truce between Israel and Iran.
“I don’t think there is a hold up. I think things are going along very well,” Trump told reporters at the start of the dinner when asked what was preventing a peace deal.
Sitting on the opposite side of a long table from the Israeli leader, Trump also voiced confidence that Hamas was willing to end the conflict in Gaza, which is entering its 22nd month.
“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if clashes involving Israeli soldiers would derail talks.
The meeting in Washington came as Israel and Hamas held a second day of indirect talks in Qatar on an elusive ceasefire.
Netanyahu meanwhile said he had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — the US president’s long-held goal — presenting him with a letter he sent to the prize committee.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other,” Netanyahu said.
But Netanyahu was more cagey on peace with the Palestinians and ruled out a full Palestinian state, saying that Israel will ‘always’ keep security control over the Gaza Strip.
“Now, people will say it’s not a complete state, it’s not a state. We don’t care,” Netanyahu said.
Several dozen protesters gathered near the White House as Trump and Netanyahu met, chanting slogans accusing the Israeli prime minister of “genocide.”
Trump has strongly backed key US ally and fellow conservative Netanyahu, lending US support in Israel’s recent war by bombing Iran’s key nuclear facilities.
But at the same time he has increasingly pushed for an end to what he called the “hell” in Gaza. Trump said on Sunday he believes there is a “good chance” of an agreement this coming week.
“The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the hostages,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt said Trump wanted Hamas to agree to a US-brokered proposal “right now” after Israel backed the plan for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The latest round of negotiations on the war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, with representatives seated in different rooms in the same building.
Monday’s talks ended with “no breakthrough,” a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told AFP. The Hamas and Israeli delegations were due to resume talks later.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was due to join the talks in Doha later this week in an effort to get a ceasefire over the line.
The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier told AFP.
The group was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system, they said.
In Gaza, the civil defense agency said Israeli forces killed at least 12 people on Monday, including six in a clinic housing people displaced by the war.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,523 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.
