We are working to achieve this deal that is being talked about,” Netanyahu told reporters before he departed Sunday, adding, that he thought Trump “can definitely help advance this outcome, which we all hope for.”
Netanyahu also thanked Trump for his recent support for Israel during its 12-day war with Iran, calling it “a great victory over our common enemy.” Relations between the two nations presented “a great opportunity … to expand the circle of peace” in the Middle East, he added.
Trump, who in recent months has pushed for a deal to end the fighting between Israel and Hamas, is expected to greet Netanyahu at 6:30 p.m. before they sit down for dinner, the White House said in a press release Sunday.
An Israeli official briefed on the matter told NBC News that Netanyahu was expected to meet with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, before he sits down with the president.
“We are close to a deal in Gaza,” Trump told reporters in New Jersey on Sunday.
But Israel and Hamas appear deadlocked on whether the agreement will lead to a permanent end to the fighting, which, barring a six-day pause in November 2023 and a 42-day ceasefire earlier this year, has raged for 21 months.
At least seven Palestinians, including women and children, lost their lives in the attack.
A Palestinian woman looks out from a shattered clinic in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike on Monday.Abdalhkem Abu Riash / Anadolu via Getty Images
On Friday, Hamas said it had responded to a U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce. It has also said it will free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
But Netanyahu has called for the full elimination of Hamas and asked the group to surrender, disarm and go into exile — something it refuses to do.
While he travels to Washington, a separate Israeli negotiating team traveled to Qatar on Sunday for indirect talks with Hamas and Netanyahu said it had clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire agreement under conditions that Israel has accepted.
Inside Gaza, at least 80 people were killed in Israeli strikes, Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, the director of the enclave’s field hospitals, told NBC News on Sunday. He added that the number was likely to increase because of the ongoing shelling and airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
More than 56,000 people have been killed and thousands more seriously injured since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, according to health officials in the enclave. Some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostages that day in Israel.
Elsewhere, Israel on Sunday launched fresh strikes in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi militant group, targeting ports in Hodeida, Ras Isa and Saif, along with the commercial ship Galaxy Leader that they hijacked in 2023.
Trump and Netanyahu at the White House in April
“These ports are used by the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons of the Iranian regime that are used to carry out terrorist plots against the State of Israel and its allies,” an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said in a statement Sunday.
In a separate post on X, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the strikes were part of “Operation Black Flag,” adding that the Iran-backed militant group would “continue to pay a heavy price for their actions.”
Middle East Conflict
Israel targets Yemen’s Houthis with airstrikes after missile launched by rebel group
“The fate of Yemen is the same as the fate of Tehran,” he added, referring to the Iranian regime.
But a Houthi spokesperson downplayed the Israeli attack in a statement Monday, saying that the militant group’s air defenses had “successfully countered” it by “using locally manufactured surface-to-air missiles.”
The attacks on the Iran-backed Houthis came after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public appearance since the 12-day war with Israel. Iranian state television showed him greeting worshippers at a mosque Saturday.
