WASHINGTON ( WNAM MONITORING): US President Donald Trump said Monday that he cannot guarantee the tenuous ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip will hold, just one day before he hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he has “no assurances” that the truce will remain in force.
“I’ve seen people brutalized. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. No, I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold,” he said.
Trump will host Netanyahu on Tuesday in what will mark the first official visit of a foreign leader to the White House since he assumed office last month.
Before his departure to the US, Netanyahu said he delayed sending his negotiating team to Qatar for talks set for Monday on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement until his meeting with Trump, Israeli media said.
The ongoing first phase of the agreement includes a six-week truce in which successive waves of detainees are released by Israel and Hamas as Israel pulls its forces out of populated areas in Gaza.
Under the truce’s terms, the first phase can be extended so long as the parties continue their negotiations over reaching second phase of the deal, which includes further hostage releases, including male Israeli soldiers. All remaining Israeli forces are expected to withdraw from Gaza during the second phase, and the temporary cease-fire will become permanent.
Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and left the territory in ruins amid mass displacement and shortages of badly-needed humanitarian assistance.
Asked if he would support Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank, Trump left the door open to the proposal.
“Well, I’m not going to talk about that. It certainly is a small country in terms of land,” he said. “Actually, it’s a pretty small piece of land, and it’s amazing that they’ve been able to do what they’ve been able to do. When you think about it, it’s a lot of good smart brain power, but it is a very small piece of land, no question about it.”
