Netanyahu to meet Trump at White House next week amid Iran war escalation

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkUS President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, DC in February 2025 [Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters]By Al Jazeera StaffPublished On 24 Jul 202624 Jul 2026Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House next Tuesday, the PM’s office said.It added that the meeting coincides with Netanyahu’s visit for the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham. The Republican, who was one of the staunchest supporters of Israel in Washington, died suddenly last week.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3US court affirms release of pro-Palestine scholar as legal battle continueslist 2 of 3Israel carries out blasts across south Lebanon despite ‘ceasefire’ deallist 3 of 3Trillion dollar US defence bill would deepen military ties with Israelend of list“At President Trump’s invitation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart for Washington on Monday for an official visit,” the statement said.“As part of the visit, the prime minister will meet with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday and will attend the funeral service for Senator Lindsey Graham.”The visit will be Netanyahu’s seventh at the White House in Trump’s second term, far outpacing any other world leader and underscoring the administration’s continued commitment to Israel.It comes as the US-Israeli war with Iran has again escalated following a breakdown earlier this month of a ceasefire reached as part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the US and Iran.Israel had opposed the MoU, with its ongoing military operations in Lebanon repeatedly threatening to derail diplomatic overtures. The Trump administration has been overseeing talks between Lebanon and Israel aimed at ending the war that do not include Hezbollah.Both Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a plan meant to turn over Israeli-occupied areas to the Lebanese military, although the facts on the ground have remained largely unchanged since March. In a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun earlier this week, Trump did not offer a timeline for Israel’s withdrawal.Also on Friday, US Central Command said its forces completed their 13th consecutive night of strikes on Iran. Iran has retaliated daily against US assets in the region, killing three US soldiers in a strike on a base in Jordan last week.Washington has also increasingly shifted military assets to Israel, in what some analysts see as a sign of a larger escalation on the horizon.The visit also comes as Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza goes on, with the Israeli military continuing to issue displacement orders and launching near daily attacks, despite the US-backed “ceasefire” that began last October.An analysis from UN agencies has found that an estimated 1.4 million people, representing 67 percent of Gaza’s population, are still suffering “crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity”. All told, at least 73,311 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to local health authorities, including 1,185 people since the current “ceasefire” began.In the occupied West Bank, Israeli raids have again escalated, with four Palestinians killed on Friday in an attack by Israeli forces and settlers southwest of Nablus, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement.Israeli health officials reported that an Israeli settler was killed and others injured in the area.At least 86 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis across the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year, including 21 shot by settlers.Threats to arrestThe US visit comes as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has called on federal officials to arrest Netanyahu, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges related to war crimes committed in Gaza.Mamdani had previously threatened to use the New York Police Department to arrest Netanyahu, but acknowledged earlier this week he did not have the “authority to do so”. Netanyahu is expected to travel to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly in September.The US is not a signatory of the ICC’s founding document, the Rome Statute, and is therefore not subject to the court’s jurisdiction. The Trump administration has further taken an offensive approach against the court, vowing an “all-of government” campaign that has included sanctioning ICC officials and groups that support its investigations. Trump has rejected the prospect of Netanyahu’s arrest while in the US.“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while in the United States of America,” he posted on Truth Social on Monday.He instead hailed Israel’s role in fighting Iran. The US Congress is also currently considering a defence budget that would see the US and Israel integrate their militaries, in a major deepening of ties.But public opinion polls have shown Israel’s standing in the US has plummeted amid the war in Gaza.More recently, several influential right-wing figures have charged that Israel dragged the US into the war with Iran. The conflict has stretched on for five months with no end in sight.