U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he plans to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that Netanyahu would be traveling to Washington to meet with him.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump did not give a date for the face-to-face meeting, but said it would take place "very soon."
The meeting comes amid a fragile six-week ceasefire that has brought a temporary pause to 15 months of fighting between Israel and militant group Hamas in Gaza.
Trump also said Monday he wants Egypt to take in Palestinians from Gaza, where much of the population has been displaced by Israel's military response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
"I wish he would take some. We help them a lot, and I'm sure he can help us," Trump said of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom he called a "friend."
"I'd like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence," Trump said of Palestinians in Gaza.
Trump's comments come after he floated at the weekend the idea that Egypt and Jordan, which border Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories to the south and east, respectively, should take in Palestinians from Gaza because "almost everything is demolished and people are dying there."
The new U.S. president said he made the request in a phone call with Jordan's King Abdullah on Saturday.
Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. Both countries pushed back over the weekend after Trump said they should take in Palestinians from Gaza, where Israel's military assault has caused a humanitarian crisis and killed tens of thousands.
The suggestion was also rejected by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza, and Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who exercises limited self-rule in some areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Egypt, Jordan and other Arab countries oppose removing Palestinians from Gaza, in part because it is land that Palestinians want as part of a future Palestinian state.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. The fighting has currently paused amid a fragile ceasefire.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, agreed this month with Egyptian and Qatari mediation and U.S. support, 33 hostages are due to be released during a six-week ceasefire, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them serving life sentences in Israeli jails. Seven hostages and 290 prisoners have so far been exchanged.
Displaced Palestinians began returning to their homes in Gaza City this week found a city in ruins after 15 months of fighting.(Cay) Newsmaker23
Source: Investing.com
The upcoming Supreme Court ruling on the legality of President Donald Trump's massive tariffs, which rocked markets in April, is one of the next major tests for US stocks and bonds. Equity markets ha...
The US seized two Venezuela-linked oil tankers in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday, one of which was sailing under a Russian flag, as part of President Donald Trump's aggressive efforts to regulate oil...
France is working with partners on a plan on how to respond should the United States act on its threat to take over Greenland, a minister said on Wednesday, as Europe sought to address U.S. President ...
The world community must make clear that U.S. intervention in Venezuela is a violation of international law that makes the world less safe, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human...
US President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to come to the aid of protesters in Iran if security forces open fire on them, days after unrest that has killed several people and posed the biggest int...
Oil prices stabilized on Thursday (February 12th), as the market reassigned a risk premium to US-Iran tensions despite US inventory data showing swelling domestic supplies. This movement confirms one thing: geopolitical headlines are still more...
Gold prices weakened slightly on Thursday (February 12th), as more solid US employment data reduced market confidence in an imminent Federal Reserve interest rate cut. The strong employment data prompted market participants to shift expectations of...
The Hang Seng Index reversed its downward trend in Hong Kong on Thursday (February 12th), weakening by around 0.9% to around 27,000 after a strong session earlier. This decline halted the momentum of the short term rally, as investors began to...