U.S. President Donald Trump has invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House on February 4, the Prime Minister’s Office announced on Tuesday, in what would be the first visit by a foreign leader to Washington during Trump’s second term.
The visit will come less than a week after Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will be in Israel, and as negotiators begin talks on transitioning to the second stage of the Gaza cease-fire agreement.
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Witkoff confirmed on last week that he will be visiting the Israel and Gaza corridors to ensure the terms of the cease-fire he helped broker are being appropriately implemented.
“I’m going to be a part of an inspection team at the Netzarim corridor and also at the Philadelphi corridor. That’s where you have outside overseers making sure that people are safe, and people who are entering are not armed and no one has bad motivations,” he told Fox News.
Steve Witkoff talks with reporters in Florida, earlier this month.Credit: Evan Vucci/AP
In the White House’s first press briefing since Trump assumed office, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the U.S. government discovered $50 million had been allocated to fund condoms in Gaza: “That is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money.”
Asked about potentially deporting pro-Palestinian protesters on student visas, Leavitt said that “the president is open to deporting individuals who have broken our immigration laws”
Trump was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president on January 20, where he ushered in his second four-year term by saying, “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.
“I’m proud to say that as of yesterday [January 19], one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families,” he said in his inaugural address, referring to the Gaza hostage and cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas signed earlier in January.