JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the country’s president on Sunday ahead of his visit to Washington, with talks focusing on the Gaza war and efforts to expand ties with Arab states, the presidency said.
Netanyahu is expected at the White House on Monday for talks with US President Donald Trump, who is pushing to end the 21-month war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas.
Indirect negotiations were set to resume Sunday in Doha, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
“In his visit to Washington, the prime minister carries with him an important mission -- advancing a deal to bring all our hostages home,“ President Isaac Herzog said in a statement.
“This is a supreme moral duty. I fully support these efforts, even when they involve difficult, complex and painful decisions. We must all remember that the cost is not simple,“ he added.
Two Palestinian sources close to the discussions told AFP the proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel.
Some in Israel have called for an agreement that would see all hostages released in a single exchange.
Netanyahu and Herzog -- whose role is largely ceremonial -- also discussed the prospect of expanding the US-brokered Abaraham Accords of 2020, which saw Israel normalise relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
“The two discussed opportunities to deepen ties with additional countries, in the spirit of US President Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords initiative,“ said the statement from Herzog’s office.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has recently said his government was “interested” in normalising ties with neighbouring Lebanon and Syria, with Damascus saying such a move was “premature”. – AFP
