Trump declared today that he will be “very firm” with Netanyahu about ending the war in Gaza, as we read in Haaretz:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that he will travel to Washington next week for a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. According to a source familiar with the details, the visit is expected to last about five days.

Netanyahu said he also plans to meet with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. He added that he would also meet with congressional and Senate leaders and hold “security meetings” whose nature he declined to specify.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the two would discuss “the great success in Iran” and also Gaza. The president added, “We hope a cease-fire is going to happen, and we’re looking for it to happen sometime next week. We want to get our hostages back.” Later on Tuesday, Trump said Netanyahu wants to end the Gaza war.

Meanwhile, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s point man in Washington, is currently in the U.S. capital and is scheduled to meet today with Rubio, Witkoff and Vance.

His visit is expected to focus on the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks and the potential for expanding the Abraham Accords. However, the main focus is likely to be Trump’s push to end the war in Gaza.

Two sources who recently spoke with a senior White House official told Haaretz that the Americans intend to make it clear to Dermer that the war must end in order to save the remaining hostages. Hamas, the official said, can be dismantled at a later stage.

The official expressed optimism about ending the war and securing the hostages’ release, though one of the sources noted it remains unclear how much pressure the U.S. administration is prepared to place on Israel. On Tuesday, when asked how firm we would be with Netanyahu, Trump answered, “Very firm… He wants to end it too… I think we’ll have a deal next week.”

Trump wants to create a legacy for himself as the president who brought ‘peace to the Middle East.’ He tried to establish a ceasefire as soon as he entered office, and there was a three-phase ceasefire that was in the works, but Israel broke the ceasefire before phase 2 was even allowed to begin. Trump established another ceasefire between Israel and Iran and, according to Trump, Israel violated that ceasefire and did not know “what the f**k” it was doing. No matter what Trump does, Israel will want to pursue war because it wants to expand its borders.