US President Donald Trump has invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet him at the White House next week, the Israeli leader’s office announced on Tuesday.
The meeting is scheduled for the following Tuesday, February 4, the Prime Minister’s Office said, adding that Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to receive such an invitation during Trump’s second term.
However, a White House official told The Times of Israel that a date has not yet been finalized for the sit-down.
The official clarified that the meeting will still take place early next week.
In the invitation, which also noted that it was the first issued to a foreign leader since his return to the White House, Trump wrote to Netanyahu: “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”
Among the key topics on the agenda will be the partially implemented, still-evolving hostage release and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on January 19 after months of negotiations and following an intense push by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff, who joined the talks even before the new US president was sworn in.
Trump is said to be keen to see all stages of the complex, three-phase agreement carried through, while Netanyahu is facing political pressure from the far-right of his coalition to resume the fighting following the end of the 42-day first phase. The Otzma Yehudit party already left the government in protest and allied Religious Zionism has threatened to follow if the war is not continued.
Netanyahu, who is still recovering from surgery to remove his prostate a month ago, will need to ask for a pause in his ongoing corruption trial — in which he is currently giving testimony — to travel to Washington. Two days of hearings in the trial were cancelled this week due to one of the judges falling ill, which came after several weeks of testimony were delayed following Netanyahu’s hospitalization.
According to Channel 13 news, Washington has a package of incentives it hopes will persuade Netanyahu to maintain the ceasefire, which is supposed to end the war and see the release of all Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
These include the approval of legislation to sanction the International Criminal Court in an effort to pressure it to cancel an arrest warrant against Netanyahu that the court issued over alleged war crimes in Gaza during the war, though Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked the bill from advancing.
The unsourced report said the administration’s declared support for Israel’s decision cutting ties to the UN Palestinian relief agency and other moves such as lifting a hold up on heavy bomb deliveries imposed by the Biden administration, the canceling of sanctions on violent Israeli settlers, and Trump’s suggestion of clearing Palestinians out of Gaza to other countries, are all also part of the incentive drive.
A report by the Kan public broadcaster said Netanyahu will seek to get Trump’s agreement to continue the war. Senior Israeli officials told the broadcaster that Jerusalem wants to coordinate with Washington on a list of regional issues, including Gaza, Lebanon, Iran and normalization with Saudi Arabia, the latter of which Trump has long been interested in achieving.
With the Gaza deal, which was mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar, now in its second week, Witkoff flew to Israel from Saudi Arabia Tuesday night and was slated to with Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, according to multiple reports.
Witkoff will bring a message that Trump expects the ceasefire agreement to be seen through until the end, and that the political and security disputes in Israel over the truce need to be resolved, Kan said, without citing sources. The envoy has also asked to meet with four Israeli female soldiers who were released Saturday from Hamas captivity as part of the deal, the report said.
The envoy has said he also wants to visit Gaza to oversee the implementation of the deal’s first phase. It has previously been reported that during his trip to the region, Witkoff is expected to hold discussions on the second phase of the ceasefire, a development that officials are said to be ready to begin.
Meanwhile, the Axios news site reported that Witkoff met Tuesday with Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Citing two sources, the report said the meeting was held after several weeks of behind-the-scenes talks between Trump officials and PA leaders.
One of the sources said that Saudi Arabia set up the meeting, which took place in Riyadh. Witkoff was in Saudi Arabia to meet with the kingdom’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a US official told Axios.
The White House, the Saudi embassy in Washington and al-Sheikh all declined to comment.
The Haaretz daily noted that during Witkoff’s visit , an Israeli-operated business jet was in Saudi Arabia. According to the Flightradar24 website, which tracks air traffic, the jet flew early Tuesday from Tel Aviv to Riyadh and was on the ground during Witkoff’s stay. It later took off and landed in Amman, Jordan.
Trump has been widely credited for contributing to Israel and Hamas’s acceptance of the ceasefire deal, following vague threats he made of “hell to pay” in the Middle East if the captives did not go free before his inauguration, and a reportedly “tense” meeting between Netanyahu and Witkoff.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.