Donald Trump to meet Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday

Israeli Prime Minister will be first foreign leader to visit White House since US President took office

Donald Trump meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, during his first term as US president, in 2017. AP

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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday, becoming the first foreign leader to visit the White House since Mr Trump took office.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the visit on Friday and said it would be "a working meeting and visit with the President".

The visit comes as a pause in fighting in Gaza - announced a day before former president Joe Biden left the White House - appears to be holding. Mr Biden and Mr Trump sought to take credit for the ceasefire and hostage release deal that halted a 15-month Israeli military campaign in Gaza. More than 47,400 Palestinians have been killed in strikes on the coastal enclave. The war was ignited by a Hamas attack that killed about 1,200 people, with 240 taken hostage.

"The President will be committed to the release of all remaining hostages and they should have never been taken by the brutal terrorists who took them in the first place," Ms Leavitt said. "President Trump's working meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister next week emphasises this continued support for Israel."

Mr Netanyahu visited Washington in July last year. He held talks with Mr Biden and Kamala Harris, vice president at the time, and gave a speech before Congress, where he was met with applause and standing ovations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress in Washington in July 2024. Reuters

His visit came after Mr Biden dropped out of the presidential race. It also came at the height of anti-war protests across college campuses, who he called "Iran's useful idiots".

Pro-Palestinian groups were organising protests this time around too, calling for Mr Netanyahu to be detained, after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Since taking office, Mr Trump has sought to highlight his support for Israel. He revoked sanctions his predecessor placed on far-right Israeli settler groups and people accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

He resumed a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that Mr Biden had paused over concerns that the munitions would be used in densely populated areas in Gaza.

Mr Trump has said that Egypt and Jordan would take Palestinians from Gaza – a plan Arab leaders have so far flatly rejected and Palestinians are unlikely to accept.

"I think Jordan will take people, yeah from Gaza, and I think Egypt will take them also," Mr Trump reiterated on Friday. "I heard someone say they're not going to, but I think they will. I feel confident."

The suggestion has gathered support from Israel's settler movement.

Last week, Mr Trump signed an executive order that would revoke the visas of foreign students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, as part of an effort by authorities to tackle anti-Semitism. Israeli leaders have welcomed the move.