The meeting is set to take place amid a fragile six-week ceasefire that has brought a temporary pause to 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza [Getty]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 4, the two governments said on Tuesday, despite the Israeli leader having an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest.
The meeting is set to take place amid a fragile six-week ceasefire that has brought a temporary pause to 15 months of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday he wants Egypt to take in Palestinians from the enclave — a plan which would effectively entail further ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland.
“I wish he would take some. We help them a lot, and I’m sure he can help us,” Trump said of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whom he called a “friend.”
“I’d like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence,” Trump said of Palestinians in Gaza.
Trump over the weekend suggested Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza. The two countries and other Arab states oppose removing Palestinians from Gaza, in part because it is land Palestinians want as part of a future Palestinian state.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 47,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
Under the terms of a ceasefire agreed this month, an initial six-week phase is due to see the release of 33 Israeli captives and hundreds of Palestinian detainees in Israel.
Displaced Palestinians began returning to their homes in Gaza City this week and found a city in ruins after 15 months of Israeli bombing.Â
(Reuters)
