United States’ President , Donald Trump will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again in White House since Trump’s return to office.
Monday’s visit, confirmed by a White House official and Netanyahu’s office on Saturday, comes as Israel deploys troops in a new security corridor across Gaza to pressure the Hamas militant group.
Netanyahu’s defence minister said Israel will seize large areas of the territory and add them to its so-called security zones.
At a joint news conference Trump r made the surprise proposal that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the territory and the United States take “ownership” in redeveloping the area into “the Riviera of the Middle East.
In a statement on Saturday, relatives of hostages held in Gaza pleaded with Trump to “please use all your power to pressure Netanyahu to end this war and bring our hostages back now”.
“We are addressing President Trump: Netanyahu is lying when he says that military pressure will bring back the abductees. The only way to quickly return all the abductees is to end the war and return them all in one fell swoop,” Ifat Calderon, aunt of hostage Ofer Calderon, said in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout from Gaza.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel killed about 1200 people, mostly civilians. Some 251 hostages were taken, most of them since released in ceasefire agreements and other deals.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as part of Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Australian Associated Press