Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to the United States to discuss the second phase of the aged ceasefire with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza, his office said.
Negotiations during the second phase are expected to start in Washington on Monday, Netanyahu’s office announced on Sunday while the Israeli chief left for the United States.
US President Donald Trump, who claimed the credit for the cease-fire agreement signed on January 19, is expected to welcome Netanyahu to the White House on Tuesday. It will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since its inauguration on January 20.
“Bibi Netanyahu arrives on Tuesday, and I think we have planned very major meetings,” said Trump.
Netanyahu’s office said the Israeli leader will start discussions with Trump’s Middle East on Middle East Steve Witkoff on Middle East on Middle East concerning the second phase of the truce.
Netanyahu’s American trip arrives at two weeks in the first phase of the ceasefire which is expected to release 33 Israeli captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The second phase should cover the release of the remaining captives and include discussions on a more permanent end of the war.
The ceasefire of Gaza took a 15-month break from an Israeli genocide in the enclave which killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, the government announced on Monday.
The total was increased, around 14,000 people who have been missing and presumed buried under the rubble were added to the previous estimates of 47,000 killed.
Speaking at Tel Aviv airport before his departure, Netanyahu said that he and Trump would discuss “victory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian terrorist axis” in the Middle East .
Netanyahu called it “revealing” that he would be the first foreign leader to meet Trump since his inauguration. “I think it is a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” he said.
It is also the Netanyahu’s first trip to the United States since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against him in November for alleged war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.
The United States, which previously praised the CPI’s decision to issue a mandate against Russian President Vladimir Putin in connection with the Ukraine War, is not a signatory to the law of Rome, the treaty which established The court.
Senior American officials are trying to sanction the International Court for Netanyahu arrest terms and former Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, and have threatened to highlight his main prosecutors and their families.
Fragile cease
How much Trump and Netanyahu are committed to advancing the ceasefire. Netanyahu undergoes immense pressure from her far -right government partners to abandon the agreement after the first phase and restart attacks against Gaza.
Trump, for his part, has given mixed signals on the prospect of a permanent end of war. Asked on January 20, shortly after being sworn, if he was convinced that the truce in Gaza would hold, he said: “I am not confident.”
“It’s not our war, it’s their war,” he added.
More recently, Trump also proposed to “clean” Ethnically Gaza, insisting that Egypt and Jordan should accommodate the displaced Palestinians of the enclave, a prospect they have refused.
Scott Lucas, professor of international policy at the University College Dublin, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the second phase of the Gaza Agreement faces the pressure on several sides. He said the Israeli captives still held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons would only be released if elements from the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire could remain in place.
“Here you talk about four sides of the pressure around Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump,” he said.
There are pressures of the right right in Israel, in particular the Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich from the interior of the cabinet and former Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, he said.
“They don’t want a phase two. They want a military government in Gaza, they want the displacement of the Palestinians, and they are already talking about returning to war. »»
Then there is the pressure of the elements in Israel who think that their priority should be the return of all the captives.
On the other hand, said Lucas, Hamas will continue to resist Israeli efforts to eliminate the Gaza group, and the Palestinians reject military occupation.
“Fourth is Donald Trump, who wants to be a peacemaker, but who is also firmly pro-Israeli insofar as his solution to bring peace is to send all residents of Gaza to Egypt and Jordan. There is therefore no way to stimulate these four sides to obtain a phase two at this stage. »»
Occupying colonies in the West Bank
The agenda during Netanyahu’s visit could also be illegal establishments in Israel in occupied West Bank. Smotrich, who opposes the ceasefire and is a defender of the vocal regulations, urged Netanyahu to raise the question.
“We must strengthen our grip and sovereignty over the homeland of Judea and Samaria,” said Smotrich in a message addressed to Netanyahu, referring to the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu’s first meeting with Trump clearly marks his ties with the previous American administration, who, although she was the largest weapon supplier in Israel, had criticized his conduct of war and had interrupted certain military expeditions.
Trump declared himself the most pro-Israeli president in the history of the United States and has appointed superior diplomats that openly support the far-right Israeli factions, including their pressure to annex the occupied West Bank.
