US President Donald Trump has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida for talks on breaking a deadlock over the Gaza ceasefire.
Speaking to reporters as the two leaders entered Trump’s Mar-a-Lago beach club in Florida on Tuesday AEDT, Trump struck a decidedly supportive tone with Netanyahu, even as some aides and allies have suggested the Israeli leader was slow-walking elements of the ceasefire accord signed in October.
Trump said he wanted to move to the second phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas as soon as possible, but that “there has to be a disarming of Hamas.”
He added that he would be open to supporting another rapid Israeli attack on Iran if that country keeps developing its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.
“I feel that if you had the wrong prime minister, Israel would not exist,” Trump told reporters, in remarks full of praise for the Israeli leader.
He said Israeli President Isaac Herzog had told him he planned to pardon Netanyahu of corruption-related charges.
He added that he hoped Israel could get along with Syria, even as Netanyahu’s government has consistently infringed upon Syrian territorial sovereignty since former strongman Bashar al-Assad was deposed late last year.
While Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire deal in October, alleged violations have been frequent, and little apparent progress has been made on longer-term goals.
Netanyahu said this month that Trump had invited him for talks, as Washington pushes to establish transitional governance and an international security force for the Palestinian enclave against Israeli reluctance to move forward.
What are the next steps in Gaza ceasefire plan?
Israel and Hamas agreed in October to Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, which ultimately sees Israel withdrawing from the territory and Hamas giving up its weapons and forgoing a governing role.
The first phase of the ceasefire included a partial Israeli withdrawal, an increase of aid and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian detainees and prisoners.
An Israeli official in Netanyahu’s circle said that the prime minister would demand that the first phase of the ceasefire be completed by Hamas returning the remains of the last Israeli hostage left in Gaza, before moving ahead to the next stages.
The family of the deceased hostage, Ran Gvili, has joined the prime minister’s visiting entourage and is expected to meet officials from Trump’s administration.
Israel has yet to open the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, also a condition of Trump’s plan, saying it will only do so once Gvili’s remains are returned.
Chuck Freilich, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University, said that with an election due in October, Netanyahu was in a tight spot.
“He doesn’t want a clash with Trump in an election year,” Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, said. “(Trump) wants to go forward, and Bibi (Netanyahu) is going to have to make some compromises there.”
Ahead of his meeting with Trump, Netanyahu’s office said he met US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
Rubio said last week that Washington wants the transitional administration envisioned in Trump’s plan — a Board of Peace and a body made up of Palestinian technocrats — to be in place soon to govern Gaza, ahead of the deployment of the international security force that was mandated by a 17 November UN Security Council resolution.
But Israel and Hamas have accused each other of major breaches of the deal and look no closer to accepting the much more difficult steps envisaged for the next phase.
Hamas, which has refused to disarm, has been reasserting its control as Israeli troops remain entrenched in about half the territory.
Israel has indicated that if Hamas is not disarmed peacefully, it will resume military action to make it do so.
Since the ceasefire began in October, Israeli strikes have killed more than 400 Palestinians — most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials — and Hamas have killed three Israeli soldiers.
