US President Trump invites Israeli PM Netanyahu to White House, to meet on this date

The visit comes as the United States pressures Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza

Wadi Gaza: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says President Donald Trump has invited him to visit the White House on February 4, which would make him the first foreign leader to visit Washington in Trump’s second term.

The visit comes as the United States pressures Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza.

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Trump teased the upcoming visit in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, but didn’t provide scheduling details. “I’m going to be speaking with Bibi Netanyahu in the not-too-distant future,” he said.

The meeting would be a chance for Netanyahu, under pressure at home, to remind the world of the long support he has received from Trump over the years. Netanyahu is likely to encourage Trump not to hold up weapons deliveries the way the Biden administration did.

Even before taking office this month, Trump was sending his special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to the region to apply pressure along with the Biden administration to get the current ceasefire achieved.

Under the ceasefire, more than 3,75,000 Palestinians have crossed into northern Gaza since Israel allowed their return on Monday morning, the United Nations said Tuesday. That represents over a third of the million people who fled in the war’s opening days.

Many of the Palestinians trudging along a seaside road or crossing in vehicles after security inspections were getting the first view of shattered northern Gaza under the fragile ceasefire that is now in its second week.

They were determined, if their homes were damaged or destroyed, to pitch makeshift shelters or sleep outdoors amid the vast piles of broken concrete or perilously leaning buildings. After months of crowding in squalid tent camps or former schools in Gaza’s south, they would finally be home.