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6 min read
Israel at a crossroads as Netanyahu prepares to meet Trump
By Dana Karni, Michael Schwartz, Oren Liebermann and Kylie Atwood, CNN
Updated:
5:22 PM EDT, Tue July 1, 2025
Source: CNN
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for his third
visit to the White House this year, his host has made his expectations
clear. US President Donald Trump, who has spoken often about his desire
to secure a ceasefire in , said on Tuesday: “We’re looking for it
to happen next week.”
Though the two leaders will celebrate the US and Israeli strikes in ,
Gaza is very much on their agenda. “We want to get the hostages
back,” Trump said.
Netanyahu, who is set to meet the US president on Monday, faces a
critical decision at the crossroads of two very different conflicts:
one precise and short, the other brutal and protracted. The long-time
Israeli leader held two high-level meetings on Gaza already this week
and is expected to hold another on Thursday, according to an Israeli
official.
But the government has yet to decide on how to proceed in Gaza, a
source familiar with the discussions said. That choice boils down to
whether to pursue a ceasefire agreement or to intensify a military
bombardment of the enclave that has already killed more than 56,000
Palestinians, as Israel tries to increase pressure on Hamas.
Earlier this week, the Israeli military recommended pursuing a
diplomatic path in the strip after more than 20 months of fighting and
the elimination of much of Hamas’ senior leadership.
On Tuesday, a military official told CNN that Israel has not fully
achieved all of its war goals, but as Hamas’ forces have shrunk and
gone into hiding, it has become more difficult to effectively target
what remains of the militant group.
“It’s harder now to achieve tactical goals,” the official said.
The military could keep pursuing the destruction of Hamas’ military
and governance capabilities, they added, but a political agreement
could also be effective.
The far-right members of Netanyahu’s government are demanding an
intensification of Israel’s campaign.
“No agreements. No partners. No mediators. Only a clear outcome: the
destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages from a position of
strength,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the
Religious Zionism party, on Monday.
But after almost two years of war, others have made clear that the
release of the remaining 50 hostages in Gaza is the priority.
“In my opinion, everything must be done to release the hostages. And
we are over 600 days late. Everything must be done to bring everyone
back – the living and the fallen. Not out of weakness – out of
strength,” Minister of Welfare Ya’akov Margi said on Israel’s
religious Kol B’ramah radio. Pressed on whether that includes an end
to the war, Margi said, “I think we should enter negotiations, and
everything should be on the table.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) already controls some 60% of Gaza’s
besieged territory, forcing more than two million Palestinians – many
of whom have been displaced several times – into shrinking areas near
the coast. But negotiations have been stalled for weeks, unable to
bridge a key gap. Hamas demands a permanent end to the conflict as part
of any ceasefire agreement, while Israel has refused to commit to end
the war.
“The IDF has reached the limit of what you can achieve with power,”
said Israel Ziv, a retired major general who once led the military’s
operations department. “Netanyahu has reached a crossroads, and he
must make a choice,” he added.
One path is to leverage the achievements against Iran, Hezbollah and
Hamas and push for a regional agreement that could include upgrading
relations with Syria and Lebanon, Ziv said. Such an option would end
the war in Gaza and secure the release of the hostages, but it risks
collapsing Netanyahu’s government if the far-right parties quit the
coalition.
“The second path is continuing the war – and even if it’s not
officially declared, it would mean the conquest of Gaza,” said Ziv.
Over the weekend, Netanyahu said “many opportunities have opened
up” following Israel’s military operations in Iran, including the
possibility of bringing home everyone still held captive by Hamas.
“Firstly, to rescue the hostages,” he said. “Of course, we will
also need to solve the Gaza issue, defeat Hamas, but I believe we will
accomplish both missions.”
The comments marked a potentially significant shift in how Netanyahu
has laid out Israel’s goals in Gaza. For the vast majority of the
war, he has prioritized the defeat of Hamas. In May, he said that was
the “supreme objective,” not the return of the hostages.
But after the campaign against Iran, Netanyahu has signaled a newfound
flexibility on negotiations, one that may quickly be put to the test at
the White House as he meets an American president pushing for a deal.
New ceasefire proposal from Qatar
On Tuesday, Qatari officials submitted a new proposal for a 60-day
ceasefire to both Hamas and Israel to halt the fighting in Gaza,
according to a source familiar with the matter.
The source said the proposal was backed by the Trump administration and
was finalized after months of behind-the-scenes efforts led by
President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. It was
submitted on the same day that Israel’s Minister for Strategic
Affairs Ron Dermer visited Washington for meetings with top Trump
administration officials.
The new proposal comes just days after Qatar helped broker a ceasefire
between Iran and Israel after US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s
nuclear program, and months after an initial Trump
administration-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza was rejected by
Hamas.
The new version – which the Qataris also worked on – attempted to
take into account Hamas’ concerns with the earlier proposal, the
source said. During the ceasefire Israeli hostages would be released in
exchange for Palestinian prisoners, the source added.
The White House did not comment on the details of the proposal.
“President Trump and the administration remain committed to ending
the war in Gaza and returning all of the hostages,” a White House
official said.
Even with a new proposal on the table, getting a ceasefire agreed to
remains a major challenge. Hamas has long pushed for a permanent
ceasefire, so it is unclear if they would agree to a temporary 60-day
truce. Hamas also still maintains its core demand that the war needs to
end and that they would have to stay in power, which Israel will not
allow, said a separate source familiar with the matter. Still, there
have been some indications that Hamas is willing to show some leniency
on its hardline positions, the source said.
Last week, the Israelis contacted at least one private security group
asking if they could stand up security operations at scale around
humanitarian sites in Gaza, a separate source familiar with the
discussions said. While using private security inside Gaza has been
discussed for some time, it is noteworthy that the idea came back to
the fore as this ceasefire proposal was in its final stages before
being submitted to both Hamas and Israel.
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