Netanyahu to visit Trump at White House on Feb 4 amid fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with him at the White House on Feb. 4, making him the first foreign leader to receive an invitation to visit Trump in his second term.
Netanyahu's office announced the details of the visit on Tuesday. The White House later confirmed it would take place.
Trump said on Monday that Netanyahu would meet with him "very soon," without revealing the date.
The meeting comes less than a month after Israel reached a deal with Hamas to pause its 15-month war on Gaza in exchange for the release of 33 Israelis held hostage by the Palestinian militant group. The deal will see dozens of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails released.
Negotiators will return to the table next week to reach the second phase of the ceasefire deal, if it is to last. Trump's envoy to the Middle East, businessman Steve Witkoff, played a large role in first reaching the deal earlier this month.
With just a week in office, Trump has already dropped the Biden administration's slight restrictions on U.S. support for Netanyahu's priorities. On Saturday, he lifted restrictions on 2,000-pound bombs previously imposed by Biden, who was attempting to limit the destruction in Gaza.
Trump also suggested a plan to "just clean out" Gaza and for Egypt and Jordan to take refugees from the enclave, as 90% of Palestinians displaced in the war prepared to return to their bombed-out homes. Nearly 47,000 Palestinians were killed in the war that Israel launched after it was attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, by Hamas, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took more than 200 hostages.
Trump and Netanyahu maintained a friendly relationship through Trump's first term in office, bolstered by Trump's decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The decision was seen as a snub to the Palestinian Authority.