Israel says Netanyahu invited to meet Trump at White House

Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House next week, the Israeli prime minister’s office has said.

The visit, yet to be confirmed by the Trump administration, is set to take place on 4 February.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the Israeli PM is the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House during Trump’s second term.

On Monday, while onboard Air Force One, Trump said Netanyahu would be travelling to Washington to meet him “very soon”, without giving a specific date.

The meeting comes as a six-week ceasefire is being observed in Gaza after a deal was struck between Israel and Hamas to halt the war.

Trump claimed credit for getting the ceasefire deal over the line when it was first announced, saying on Truth Social the “epic” agreement was possible only because he won November’s presidential election.

The White House meeting would also come after Trump said last week that he wanted Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza, after describing the strip as a “demolition site”.

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned the proposal. Jordan and Egypt have also rejected the idea.

However, the idea of encouraging Gazans to relocate to neighbouring countries has long been pushed by hardline right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government.

The January ceasefire deal has paused the war which began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 47,200 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in Israel’s subsequent offensive, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.