US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely visit the United States soon.

He told reporters during a gaggle aboard Air Force One that the Israeli premier “may very well be coming next week,” but a US official subsequently clarified to Axios that the visit will not likely take place for another several weeks. An Israeli official told the news site that Trump invited Netanyahu to the White House but no date has yet been set.

Netanyahu just visited the US in early February, becoming the first foreign leader to meet with Trump since the latter’s return to the White House. His office had not mentioned an imminent trip to the US.

Netanyahu’s office said earlier Thursday that he spoke with Trump alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to discuss Budapest’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. Trump confirmed the call during the gaggle but did not provide any substantive details on the conversation.

Netanyahu, who is in Hungary, is not slated to return to Israel until Sunday morning. The weeklong Passover holiday begins next weekend, on the eve of April 12.

If he does make a trip to Washington soon, a top item on Netanyahu’s agenda will likely be the 17 percent tax that the Trump administration slapped on Israeli imports. The move caught Jerusalem off guard, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich earlier in the week ordered the all remaining tariffs on American imports to immediately be scrapped in order to prevent such a harsh penalty when Trump announced the new tariffs on Wednesday.

“We’re going to try and solve the Gaza problem. It’s been a problem for many years — for many, many decades,” Trump said when asked where efforts stand to restore a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

“I’ve met with a lot of the hostages. It’s a terrible situation. But if you notice, hostages are being released now, and that’s happened only since I got involved. We have hostages being released — quite a few,” he added. Hostages haven’t been released for over a month, though.

A ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down after the completion of the first phase on March 1. Thirty-three hostages were released during that phase, including 25 living captives.

Israel has sought to have the deal reworked so that more hostages can be released in an extension of the phase one temporary ceasefire, allowing the IDF to resume fighting against Hamas. The terror group has insisted on sticking to the original terms of the deal, which was supposed to transition on March 2 to phase two, during which the remaining living hostages — 24 in total — would be released in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and permanent end to the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected those latter two terms, arguing that they would keep Hamas in power.

The premier directed the IDF to resume intensive military operations in Gaza on March 18 after Hamas rejected several proposals to extend the first phase of the ceasefire.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that Hamas is prepared to release all of the hostages at once in exchange for a permanent ceasefire.

Amid Israel’s longstanding rejection of such a trade, it submitted earlier this week a proposal to extend phase one — something it had long refused to do and an apparent indication that Hamas is buckling under the intensive Israeli military pressure.

The Hamas proposal was nearly identical to one submitted by US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff, which would have seen the release of five hostages and also included guarantees from the mediators that Israel would agree to begin holding talks on the phase two permanent ceasefire, the Palestinian official said.

However, the Israeli counterproposal demanded 11 hostages and dropped guarantees regarding phase two talks, the official added. The proposal was rejected by Hamas and talks remain at an impasse.

“I’d like to get as many hostages as we can,” Trump said when speaking with reporters on Thursday.

“Gaza is a very, very important thing. It’s been under siege for many years,” he said, notably using rhetoric typically employed by Israel’s detractors to describe its blockade on the Hamas-ruled Strip.

“It’s a shame. A lot of people die in Gaza… a lot of bad things happen in Gaza. We’ll see what we can do about it,” Trump added.

Trump was also asked whether he would be willing to hold indirect talks with Iran through an intermediary.

“It’s better if we have direct talks. I think it goes faster and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries,” the president responded.

He went on to claim that Iran no longer wants to use intermediaries and would “like to have direct talks.”

On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Tehran had rejected direct negotiations with the US in response to a letter from Trump over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

Pezeshkian said, “Although the possibility of direct negotiations between the two sides has been rejected in this response, it has been emphasized that the path for indirect negotiations remains open.”

Trump did not elaborate on how he knew Iran changed its mind. “I think they’re concerned. I think they feel vulnerable, and I don’t want them to feel that way. I know for a fact. I think they’d like to have direct talks.”

Earlier Thursday, at least three members of the White House National Security Council were fired in what appears to be the first significant purge of Trump’s second presidency.

It was not clear exactly why the officials were let go, but three sources familiar told Reuters that several were told there were issues with their background vetting.

One of the sources said there were also concerns about leaks to the media, while two other sources suggest the ouster was aimed broadly at officials who held views that were seen as too interventionist for the liking of Trump’s allies.

Among the several NSC officials who were fired were David Feith, a senior director overseeing technology and national security, Brian Walsh, a senior director overseeing intelligence matters and Thomas Boodry, who oversees legislative affairs, the sources told Reuters.

The news of the firings came a day after an Oval Office meeting between Trump and far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who privately called on the president to fire a list of NSC staffers. Any connection between Loomer’s private suggestions and the firings was not immediately clear, and two sources said some dismissals were decided before Loomer met with Trump.

Asked about the firings aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “We’re always going to let go of people we don’t like or people [who] take advantage of… or people [who] may have loyalties to someone else.”

He called Loomer “a great patriot” and “a very strong person.”

“She makes recommendations and… sometimes I listen,” Trump said. “She always has something to say, and it’s usually constructive.”

He claimed Loomer had nothing to do with the NSC firings, though.

“She recommended some people for jobs,” Trump said, declining to elaborate.