As Netanyahu arrives in Washington, Trump anticipates ‘big meetings’
With hostage-ceasefire phase 2 negotiations set to start, US president says talks on Middle East ‘progressing’; PM to see key envoy Witkoff on Monday, Trump at White House on Tuesday

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that discussions with Israel were advancing, previewing upcoming talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other “big meetings” as the Israeli leader landed in Washington.
“The discussions on the Middle East with Israel and various and sundry other countries are progressing,” Trump told reporters over the whine of a jet engine on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
He did not offer details, but the comment came as indirect talks are slated to resume between Israel and Hamas on a second stage of the three-phase Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.
“Bibi Netanyahu’s coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled,” Trump added using the Israeli leader’s nickname.
Though the schedule is subject to change, Netanyahu is to meet with Trump on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. local time. The meeting will include dinner, likely at 9 p.m.
The two might also host a press conference and meet with hostage families on Tuesday, officials said.

The ceasefire discussions in Washington are expected to also cover concessions Netanyahu must accept to revive normalization efforts with Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh froze discussions early in the Gaza war and hardened its stance, insisting on a resolution to the Palestinian issue before making any deal.
But Netanyahu faces intense pressure from within his cabinet to resume the war, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatening to quit and strip the prime minister of his Knesset majority.
Hamas, which has reasserted control over Gaza since the ceasefire began last month, has said it will not release hostages in the second phase without an end to the war and Israeli forces’ full withdrawal.

Netanyahu has said Israel is committed to victory over Hamas and the return of all hostages captured in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.
Trump has been a staunch supporter of Israel, but has also pledged to end wars in the Middle East and took credit for helping to broker the ceasefire agreement. The deal has led to the release of 13 hostages held by terror groups in Gaza — five Thai nationals abducted in the same attack were also freed from Gaza in a separate deal — in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian security inmates from Israeli prisons.

Tuesday’s meeting with Netanyahu will be the US president’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritization Netanyahu called “telling.”
“I think it’s a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” he said before boarding his flight from Israel.
Netanyahu was welcomed to the US capital on Sunday night by Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who said that the coming Trump-Netanyahu meeting would strengthen “the deep alliance between Israel and the United States and will enhance our cooperation.”
Netanyahu is meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday and is slated to meet Congressional leaders, including the Senate majority leader and House speaker, on Thursday.
He will likely give an interview to an American outlet as well.
Netanyahu’s first high-level meeting will be on Monday with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are meanwhile due to resume this week.
The initial, 42-day phase of the ceasefire deal is now beginning its third week. In this phase, Hamas is to free 33 hostages in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, hundreds of whom were convicted of deadly terror attacks on Israelis.
The truce has also led to a surge of food, fuel, medical, and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, while displaced Palestinians have been allowed to begin returning to the north.
The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.
Relatives of hostages and many other Israelis are impatient.
“The suffering that the families are going through as this drags on is inhuman,” Nissan Kalderon, the brother of newly released hostage Ofer Kalderon, said Sunday.
During their October 7, 2023 attack, Palestinian terror group Hamas led thousands of terrorists to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, 76 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 46,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

While Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden sustained Washington’s military and diplomatic backing of Israel, it also distanced itself from the mounting death toll and aid restrictions.
Trump moved quickly to reset relations.
In one of his first acts back in office, he lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians and reportedly approved a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the Biden administration had blocked.