US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met for a second time in several days to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza on Tuesday evening.
After the meeting, Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witchoff suggested Israel and Hamas had the remaining issue to agree to the 60-day ceasefire deal.
The Netanyahu reached the White House immediately after the 17:00 EST (21:00 GMT) for the meeting, which was not open to the press members.
Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu met Vice President JD Vance. He met Trump for several hours during a dinner at the White House on Monday.
It marks Netanyahu’s third state trip since the second term of Trump.
The meeting of the two leaders lasted for about two hours.
Netanyahu also met the Republican House of Representative Speaker Mike Johnson.
After that meeting, the Prime Minister of Israel said that he did not believe that Israel’s military campaign was carried out in Gaza, but that the negotiaters are “definitely working” on a ceasefire.
Netanyahu said, “We still have to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, to eliminate and destroy the military and government abilities of Hamas.”
Witcoff later stated that Israel and Hamas were shutting down the difference on issues that previously prevented them from reaching a deal, and hoped that a temporary, 60-day ceasefire would be agreed this week.
“We had four issues and now we are down to one”, Witcoff said about the points sticking in the conversation.
He said that the draft deal would also include the release of 10 hostages who are alive, and the bodies of nine who are dead.
Prior to the meeting of the Israeli Prime Minister with Trump on Monday, a Katri delegation arrived at the White House and spoke for several hours with the authorities, exhios described a source with knowledge of talks.
Trump told reporters on Monday evening that the ceasefire talks are “very well going”. But Qatar, who played an intermediary role in the talks, said Tuesday morning that the negotiation required more time.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mazed al-Anasari said, “I don’t think I can give any timeline at this time, but I can now say that we will need time for it.”
Before the discussion began on Tuesday, a Palestinian source, familiar to the talks, told the BBC that he had not built any headway.
The latest round of conversation between Hamas and Israel began on Sunday.
According to Israeli data, the ongoing Gaza war began on 7 October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and killed 251 hostages. Israel’s counter-retrorship aggressive has killed at least 57,500 in Gaza according to the Hamas-Interested Health Ministry of the region.
