U.S. President Donald Trump said he would discuss Gaza with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and expressed hope that an agreement could be reached by the end of the week to implement a 60-day cease-fire in Gaza.
“He’s coming over later. We’re going to be talking about, I would say, almost exclusively Gaza. We’ve got to get that solved,” Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“It’s a tragedy, and he wants to get it solved, and I want to get it solved, and I think the other side wants to,” he added, referring to ongoing talks aimed at ending Israel’s deadly military campaign in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said he was hopeful that indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, currently underway in Qatar, could lead to a breakthrough.
“We are hopeful that by the end of this week we will have an agreement that will bring us into a 60-day cease-fire,” Witkoff said, adding that the deal would include the release of 10 live captives and the return of the remains of nine others.
The proposed pause would offer a temporary reprieve for Palestinians in Gaza, where over 57,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble during Israel’s months-long bombardment.
Netanyahu, who remains defiant despite mounting international criticism over the Israeli military’s atrocities in Gaza, is on his third visit to Washington since Trump returned to office in January. He is expected to stay in the U.S. capital until Thursday.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu also met with Vice President JD Vance, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, and senators on Capitol Hill as part of a broader push to rally continued U.S. political backing for Israel.
Despite growing calls for a permanent cease-fire and accountability for civilian deaths, Washington has so far shielded Israel from international pressure, repeatedly vetoing U.N. resolutions aimed at halting the violence.
White House officials are urging both sides to quickly seal an agreement that would bring about a 60-day pause in the fighting, send aid flooding into Gaza and free at least some of the remaining 50 hostages held in the territory, 20 of whom are believed to be living.
A sticking point is whether the cease-fire will end the war altogether. Hamas has said it is willing to free all the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile – something it refuses to do.
Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, incursion triggered the war, causing 1,219 deaths and taking 251 hostages, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel's genocidal war, in comparison, has killed over 57,418 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry. The United Nations considers its figures reliable.
