Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu planning to meet Trump next week as US president repeats aim to move Palestinians from Gaza
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the latest events in the Middle East.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington as early as next week, according to reports, as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people made their way back into northern Gaza on Monday.
Should Netanyahu’s trip come together in that timeframe, he could be the first foreign leader to meet with Trump at the White House since his inauguration last week. Citing two US officials familiar with the preliminary plans, the Associated Press reports that 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.
Axios, which first reported the planning for the trip, said that it is a gesture from Trump to Netanyahu for agreeing to the Gaza hostage-release and ceasefire deal. Israeli officials told Axios that Netanyahu’s arrival in Washington depends primarily on whether his health has recovered after recent prostate surgery.
Trump teased the upcoming visit in a conversation with reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday, 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 spokesperson Omer Dostri said the Israeli leader has yet to receive an official invitation to the White House.
Trump also reiterated his desire to move Palestinians from Gaza to so-called “safer” locations such as Egypt or Jordan, in comments that triggered longstanding Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes.
These comments echoed the ones he made over the weekend when he proposed that large numbers of Palestinian people should leave Gaza in order to “just clean out” the whole strip. His suggestion was denounced by some as being a proposal for ethnic cleansing.
Asked about those comments, Trump told reporters on Monday evening that 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.
In other developments:
US secretary of state Marco Rubio held a call with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday, two days after a suggestion by Donald Trump that Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza. “The Secretary and King Abdullah discussed implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the release of hostages, and creating a pathway for security and stability in the region,” the state department said in a statement. Trump’s weekend remarks were not mentioned.
Lebanese officials say firing by Israeli troops has killed two people and injured 17 in the second day of deadly protests in southern Lebanon. Residents displaced by the 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah on Monday again attempted to return to villages where Israeli troops remain. On Sunday, 24 people were killed and more than 130 injured when Israeli troops fired at protesters.
Israel said on Monday that it had arrested two Israelis suspected of spying for Iran, including one accused of handing the country classified information obtained during his military service.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem were set to lose education, healthcare and other services provided by UN agency Unrwa as an Israeli ban on the organisation takes effect on Thursday.
Eight of the 33 hostages yet to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas are dead, Israel has confirmed.
A Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo to discuss the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire deal, the group said in a statement.
The EU’s foreign ministers have agreed to a “roadmap” to ease current sanctions on Syria, a move welcomed by the country’s government.