Netanyahu to visit White House Tuesday in first visit of foreign leader since Trump assumed office

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House next week in the first such visit of a foreign leader since President Donald Trump assumed office, the executive mansion confirmed Friday.

Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt described Netanyahu's Feb. 4 trip as "a working meeting and visit with" Trump. Leavitt said the meeting "emphasizes" Trump's "continued support for Israel, and ensuring that brutal terrorists in that region have hell to pay.”

She further lauded the recent release of Israeli and Thai hostages from Gaza under the terms of a ceasefire brokered by the Biden administration, Egypt and Qatar.

"Three Israeli and five Thai nationals are being reunited with their families and their loved ones after being held in unspeakable conditions for over 15 months, and the president remains committed to the release of all remaining hostages, and they should have never been taken by the brutal terrorist group Hamas in the first place," she said.

Under first phase the ceasefire deal, which is to last 42 days, 33 Israeli captives will be released in exchange for an estimated 1,700-2,000 Palestinian detainees. The agreement comes amid widespread devastation wrought throughout the besieged Gaza Strip by Israel's war, which has further claimed the lives of over 47,000 people in the coastal enclave.

On Jan. 25, Trump publicly proposed relocating Gaza's Palestinian population to nearby countries like Egypt and Jordan. His suggestion has been widely rejected by several countries, including Jordan, Iraq, France, Germany, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the UN.

He has repeatedly claimed that he will force Egypt and Jordan to take the Palestinians who would become refugees under his plan.

"They will do it. They will do it. They're going to do it, okay? We do a lot for them, and they're going to do it," Trump told reporters Thursday.