Trump’s envoy meets Netanyahu and visits Gaza Strip

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Trump’s envoy meets Netanyahu and visits Gaza Strip

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Netanyahu says in a statement, amid the Gaza Strip ceasefire and a regional diplomatic push.

Israeli media said Witkoff also visited the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire there, which US President Donald Trump hopes to leverage into a broader regional accord that would include Saudi Arabia and Israel formalising diplomatic ties.

The US official visited Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

Netanyahu has long eyed ties with Saudi Arabia and is due to meet Trump in Washington DC on February 4, when talks for the next phase of the three-stage Gaza Strip ceasefire are meant to formally start.

An Israeli government spokesman declined to provide any details on Witkoff’s visit to the Gaza Strip, which Israel’s public broadcaster Kan said included an inspection of the Netzarim corridor.

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have crossed over the route which cuts through the Gaza Strip east to west, as they returned to their homes in the northern part of the enclave.

Israel began pulling out of the corridor on Monday and has allowed civilians to return to homes in the north as part of the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, which will also included 33 hostages being freed in exchange for almost 2000 ************ prisoners and detainees.

Seven hostages have already been released since the ceasefire took effect on January 19.

Three more, including a civilian woman and an elderly man, as well as a female soldier, will be released on Thursday, according to Netanyahu’s office.

Israel will free 110 ************ prisoners and detainees, according to the ************ prisoners’ Information Office, including 30 minors and 32 prisoners serving life sentences.

Five Thai citizens abducted from Israel during ******’ October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the Gaza conflict may also be released on Thursday, according to an Israeli official.

Ninety hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities, 10 of them foreigners.

The second stage of the deal, if it is agreed in the negotiations, is meant to open the way to ending the war with the release of all hostages and a full Israeli military withdrawal from the ************ enclave.

The Gaza Strip is one of the territories which the Palestinians seek for an independent state.

Saudi Arabia has conditioned formal ties with Israel on ************ statehood and is unlikely to make progress on this front if the war in Gaza resumes.

In Saudi Arabia, Witkoff also met with ************ officials, according to a ************ source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump in his first term in office brokered the Abraham Accords in 2020 that led to Israel normalising ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

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