Netanyahu is set to meet Trump to discuss Israeli hostages in Gaza and U.S. tariffs
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington for a second meeting since President Trump took office and as Israel’s war in Gaza marks a year and a half. Netanyahu says he expects to discuss efforts to release Israeli hostages from Gaza, as well as new U.S. tariffs.
The Trump administration imposed 17% tariffs on Israel as part of new trade measures on goods from many countries.
Netanyahu is facing pressure at home from former Israeli security chiefs, protesters and the families of hostages still held in Gaza to return to ceasefire negotiations, which his far-right coalition has resisted.
During Netanyahu’s last visit in February, Trump suggested the United States should take over the Gaza Strip, move Palestinians out and make it into a “riviera of the Middle East.”
Monday’s meeting with Trump comes on the 18-month mark since Israel’s war in Gaza began, following the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel. Israel has ramped up its military offensive since ending two months of ceasefire. It has also enforced five weeks of a blockade on aid and goods into the Gaza Strip.
Human rights groups and the United Nations have criticized the blockade saying it violates international law.
Israel’s government says it is seeking to increase pressure on Hamas to release all hostages and eventually eliminate the militant group.
Hamas’ 2023 attack killed nearly 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s military response has killed more than 50,750 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. On Monday, the territory’s health authorities said more than 50 people were killed in the past 24 hours.
In one incident overnight, an Israeli airstrike targeted a tent where journalists were sheltering in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing two people and injuring nine others, according to health officials in Gaza.
Journalist Alem-al Din al-Sadeq said a group had gathered overnight to eat together before the strike hit.
“I saw my colleague sitting on a chair engulfed in flames,” he said. “We had no water to put out the flames.”
The Israeli military says it was targeting a member of Hamas who took part in the attack on Israel, but did not name the two people who were killed.
A teenage U.S. citizen is killed
Meanwhile, violence has also continued in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A Palestinian U.S. citizen was killed by Israeli forces this weekend in the village of Turmus Ayya, according to Palestinian health officials there.
The Israeli military said it opened fire toward three people who were endangering drivers by hurling rocks at a highway in the village. It said forces killed one of them and injured two others.
West Bank health officials said that 14-year-old Palestinian American Amer Rabie was killed in that operation, and another U.S. citizen was injured.
The U.S. State Department has not commented.
Rabie would be the fifth known U.S. citizen killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
Anas Baba contributed reporting from Gaza.
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