Live: Netanyahu hoping to meet with Trump ‘as early as next week’

Trump reiterates wish to move Gazans to Egypt and Jordan

US President Donald Trump has reiterated his desire to move Palestinians from Gaza to “safer” locations such as Egypt or Jordan.

Trump told reporters Monday evening on Air Force One he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”

“You know, when you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years… there’s always been violence associated with it,” he said.

Trump has held talks in recent days with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who have historically opposed displacing Palestinians.

“I wish he would take some,” Trump said of al-Sisi. “We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us.”

“As they say, it’s a rough neighborhood, but I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too,” he added.

Netanyahu hoping to meet with Trump ‘as early as next week’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hoping to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington as early as next week, according to two U.S. officials familiar with preliminary planning for the trip.

Should the trip come together in that timeframe, Netanyahu could be the first foreign leader to meet with Trump at the White House since his inauguration last week. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the planning remains tentative, said details could be arranged when Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, travels to Israel this week for talks with Netanyahu and other Israeli officials.

Trump teased the upcoming visit in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One, but didn’t provide scheduling details. “I’m going to be speaking with Bibi Netanyahu in the not too distant future,” he said.

Netanyahu’s plans were first reported by Axios. Netanyahu’s spokesman, Omer Dostri, said Monday on the social platform X that the Israeli leader has not yet received an official invitation to the White House.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians return to northern Gaza

Over 200,000 Palestinians made the journey back to northern Gaza on Monday, with the United Nations observing a stream of people trekking northward up the road lining the Gazan coast. However, if the ongoing ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas ended a harrowing, 15-month eviction, many will return to find their homes and businesses destroyed by the widespread, constant shelling.

Welcome to our live blog, where we post the latest news coming out of the Middle East. To read all about yesterday’s key developments, click here.