Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu talks hostage deal in second meeting with Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met at the White House on Tuesday for a second time in 24 hours to discuss the possible ceasefire deal in Gaza.

The unannounced Oval Office meeting—the premier’s fourth with Trump in six months—was closed to the media and lasted around 90 minutes.

The two leaders previously met on Monday for several hours during a dinner at the White House, as part of Netanyahu’s third official trip to Washington since Trump began his second term on January 20.

Netanyahu held a brief conversation with Vice President JD Vance following the Tuesday meeting with Trump, the premier’s office announced.

Ahead of the talks on Tuesday, the U.S. president said he would be speaking with Netanyahu “almost exclusively” about the Gaza Strip.

“We gotta get that solved. Gaza is—it’s a tragedy, and he [Netanyahu] wants to get it solved, and I want to get it solved, and I think the other side wants to,” he stated, referring to Hamas.

Netanyahu, in a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office after the meeting, said that it “focused on the efforts to release our hostages.”

“We are not relenting, even for a moment, and this is made possible due to the military pressure by our heroic soldiers,” stated the premier. “The release of all of our hostages—the living and the deceased, and the elimination of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, thereby ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel.”

Netanyahu said he had also discussed with Trump and Vance “the implications and possibilities of the great victory that we achieved over Iran.”

Following the war with Tehran, opportunities had opened “for expanding the circle of peace, for expanding the Abraham Accords,” according to the prime minister, who added: “We are working on this with full vigor.”

“I also conveyed to President Trump your appreciation, citizens of Israel, for supporting us, for the determined action he took and for the joint effort that we are making today to bring a great future to the Middle East and to the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said in the Hebrew statement.

On Monday, Netanyahu presented the president with a mezuzah—a piece of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah held in a case that is attached to the doorframe—in the shape of a B-2 Spirit bomber.

The premier’s gift was a tribute to the U.S. military’s June 22 airstrikes with B-2 planes on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear plants.

U.S. President Donald Trump is currently focused on getting Hamas to agree to the Qatar-brokered proposal that Israel has already approved, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday.

U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Doha, Qatar, later this week to join the truce talks between Israel and Hamas, Leavitt revealed.

“I don’t want to comment on the details of the arrangement out of respect for these negotiations, but an agreeable and appropriate ceasefire has been sent to Hamas,” the spokeswoman stated.

Witkoff, speaking with the press on Monday evening before the working dinner with Trump and Netanyahu, declared, “We have an opportunity to finally get a peace deal … and I’m hopeful for it very quickly.”

The United States is pressuring Qatar to “deliver” on efforts to finalize a deal for the hostages’ release, according to Israel Hayom.

A source close to the talks told the outlet that from the White House’s perspective, with Jerusalem having responded positively to the latest truce proposal, it is now Qatar’s responsibility to ensure the terrorist group agrees as well.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari stated on Tuesday that the talks “have not begun as of yet,” but that Doha was speaking to both sides separately to reach a “framework” for the negotiations.

“I don’t think that I can give any timeline at the moment, but I can say right now that we will need time for this,” according to the spokesman.

Last week, Trump said that “we’re close to a deal on Gaza,” adding: “I think there’s a good chance we have a deal with Hamas during the coming week. We’ve gotten a lot of the hostages out, but pertaining to the remaining hostages, quite a few of them will be coming out.”

Fifty hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, including at least 20 who are believed to be alive 640 days after being taken during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre in southern Israeli communities.