Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to to Washington early next week to meet with US President Donald Trump, a White House official confirmed to The Times of Israel Monday night, amid intensifying efforts by Washington to end the war in Gaza and free hostages held there for nearly two years.

The July 7 visit will mark Netanyahu’s third trip Trump to Washington to meet Trump since the US president returned to office in January 2025, and will come exactly two weeks after Israel and Iran agreed to a US-brokered halt to a 12-day air war that saw long simmering tensions between the arch foes explode into open conflict for the first time.

There was no confirmation from the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the timing for the visit, which was first reported by Axios.

A second US official told The Times of Israel that top issues on the agenda would be Gaza and Iran, stressing Trump’s desire to secure an end to the war in Gaza and a release of the remaining hostages. Syria will also be discussed, the US official added.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer is currently in Washington for meetings with US officials, where he is reportedly facing increased pressure to bring about an end to the 20-month-long war in the Palestinian enclave.

Netanyahu convened his top aides and ministers on Monday evening for a second meeting in as many nights regarding Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

The office of one of ministers involved told The Times of Israel that the group was still unable to come to an agreement on the future of the war in Gaza after coming to loggerheads the night before.

The premier will hold another meeting on the topic on Thursday, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Trump has been vocal in recent days regarding his desire for Israel to agree to a deal to end the war and bring home the 50 remaining hostages in Gaza, and raised expectations Friday with a prediction that a hostage-ceasefire deal could be inked within a week.

However Israel and the Hamas terror group remain far apart, as the two sides have stuck to their positions in negotiations with mediators.

Remaining sticking points between the sides include Hamas’s demand for a permanent end to the war — as opposed to Israel’s efforts to secure a temporary ceasefire that leaves open the option for it to resume fighting.

However, both Netanyahu and the top brass of the Israeli military have recently made statements suggesting Israel is getting closer to agreeing to end the war against Hamas.

An official in Netanyahu’s office said earlier that Dermer was in the US to “try to press the Americans to press the Qataris to press Hamas” for more concessions amid ongoing discussions for a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

“Qatar is the key,” the official added. “We are hoping that there will be a breakthrough very soon. It depends on Hamas.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump and administration officials were in constant communication with Israeli leadership and bringing about an end to the Gaza conflict is a priority for the president.

“It’s heartbreaking to see the images that have come out from both Israel and Gaza throughout this war, and the president wants to see it end,” Leavitt said. “He wants to save lives.”

On Sunday, US official and an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel Sunday that Dermer would face pressure from the Trump administration to end the war in Gaza.

The official from Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s military was continuing to press its offensive in Gaza in the meantime. “We are continuing to progress and deepen the ground maneuver, to pressure Hamas until it agrees to a deal or until we defeat it,” the official said.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said during a visit to a Shin Bet facility in southern Israel that, “First of all, [we need] to free the hostages. Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I believe that we will achieve both tasks.”

His comments were broadly interpreted in local media as prioritizing a deal to return the 50 remaining captives in Gaza before all else, a sign of the mounting pressure from the Trump administration to wrap up the conflict that has continued since October 7, 2023.

At the same time, Netanyahu has faced demands from hawkish coalition partners that he push ahead with the military campaign, launched in Gaza following the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told reporters ahead of his Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset Monday that there is “no greater danger” for Israel than a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

“I call on the prime minister: No more dialogue with murderers,” Smotrich said, urging Netanyahu to push for a “sharp and swift war that will destroy the enemy in Gaza and remove the threat it poses to Israel for many years to come.”

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 56,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

The second US official said Trump would also discuss Iran and Syria during the meeting with Netanyahu.

According to the official, the president planned to use the meeting to tout military achievements during the war against against Iran. Though primarily an Israeli-led offensive, the briefly joined on June 22 by attacking three Iranian nuclear sites, dropping massive ground-penetrating bombs on the hardened subterranean Fordo facility and firing missiles at the Natanz and Isfahan plants.

The Trump administration had initially distanced itself from Israel’s June 13 surprise attack on Iran, launched to dismantle the country’s nuclear program and ballistic missile infrastructure, and Trump’s decision to deploy military forces only came after several days in which he appeared to vacillate on the issue, with much of his voter base opposed to the possibility of a fresh military entanglement in the Middle East.

Israel said its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said it had recently taken steps toward weaponization.

The official said Syria will also be discussed, as the Trump administration seeks to facilitate a gradual warming of ties between Damascus and Jerusalem.

While Washington wants Syria to join the Abraham Accords, it recognizes that it will take more time, the official said.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending US sanctions on Syria, following through on his promise to do so.

Leavitt said the move was designed to “promote and support the country’s path to stability and peace.” Sanctions will remain in place on ousted former President Bashar al-Assad, his top aides and family.

Along with the lifting of economic sanctions, Monday’s executive order lifts the national emergency outlined in an executive order issued by former President George W. Bush in response to Syria’s occupation of Lebanon and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, Treasury officials said. Five other previous executive orders related to Syria were also lifted.

Still, some restrictions remain in place. The US still designates Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism and the group led by al-Sharaa as a foreign terrorist organization.

A State Department official said the department is reviewing those designations.

Agencies contributed to this report.