Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the United States on Monday, marking the third time he will meet US President Donald Trump this year alone.
The visit is expected to revolve around Israel and the US's self-acclaimed victory against Iran, and a proposal for a ceasefire in Israel's 21-month-long war on Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
Last week, Trump said Israel had agreed to conditions for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, which would allow all parties to work towards an end to Israel's war on the besieged enclave.
On July 4, Hamas gave a "positive" response to Qatari and Egyptian mediators about the latest ceasefire proposal.
On Friday, Trump said there could be a "deal next week" and promised to be "very firm" with Netanyahu to ensure a ceasefire, following Hamas's response to the proposal.
Israel has since said that Hamas has requested changes to the proposal that it found "unacceptable", but that Israeli negotiators would be going to Qatar on Sunday to discuss the proposal.
What would a ceasefire mean?
According to a leaked copy of the deal obtained by Al Jazeera, the ceasefire entails a 60-day pause in hostilities and a phased release of some of the 58 Israeli captives held in Gaza since a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Al Jazeera cites experts who are dubious of this prospective ceasefire, which could very well be a temporary cessation of hostilities, only to make way for renewed ways to execute Palestinians.
Ceasefire's sustainability in question
Earlier this year, Trump promised an end to the war after pushing for a ceasefire just days before he became president, yet did nothing when Israel unilaterally resumed its attacks on Gaza, killing thousands more people.
The so-called temporary ceasefire was a clever ruse to get the Israeli captives released, but not end the war.
The precedence set before gives way to valid scepticism.
Mairav Zonszein, an expert on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group, said the same thing could happen again.
"I'm optimistic there could be some kind of ceasefire, but longevity and the terms are highly questionable," Zonszein said.
"It's also possible we could see a ceasefire that does not last because … Israel still every so often just bombs something without repercussions [in Gaza]," she added.
Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 57,000 people, mostly women and children, in what United Nations experts, legal scholars and human rights groups describe as a genocide against Palestinians.
Spoils of war await Trump and Netanyahu
Many analysts believe that Trump is driven by his desire to strike grandiose, ad hominem deals to boast about his achievements in global affairs.
There is speculation that, on Monday, he is likely to take credit for the contentious dismantling of Iran's nuclear programme and express his desire to retrieve the rest of the Israeli captives in Gaza.
He may also want to get the "Gaza issue" out of the way to pursue more normalisation deals between Israel and neighbouring Arab states, said Khaled Elgindy, an expert on Israel-Palestine and a professor of Arab Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
"Trump wants to be able to say that he got back the Israeli hostages… and got a Palestinian state… Then he can call himself master of the universe, but getting those things is much harder than he thinks," Elgindy told Al Jazeera.
It's a matter of speculation whether Netanyahu's political calculations align with Trump's ambitions.
In addition, Israel's next parliamentary elections have to take place before October 2026, and Netanyahu could go to the polls sooner, leveraging on a likely surge of popularity if he succeeds in returning the remaining captives.
Like Trump, he would also boast about what he terms a stunning victory against Iran to the Israeli public.
Comments