Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump he was nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize as the two hailed their recent joint strikes on Iran ‘s nuclear facilities as an unmitigated success.
The pair sat down with their top aides for a dinner in the White House on Monday night, to mark the Iran operation and discuss efforts to push forward with a 60-day ceasefire proposal to pause the 21-month conflict in Gaza.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, one country and one region after the other,” Netanyahu said as he presented Trump with a nominating letter he said he sent the Nobel committee.
The call for the peace prize comes after the Israeli leader for years had pressed Trump and his predecessors to take military action against Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump ordered US forces to drop “bunker-buster” bombs and fire a barrage of Tomahawk missiles on three key Iranian nuclear sites.
It also allowed Netanyahu to further ingratiate himself with Trump, who for years has made little secret of the fact that he covets a Nobel Peace Prize and sees himself as a capable peacemaker.
Netanyahu’s outwardly triumphant visit to the White House, his third this year, was dogged by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and questions over how hard Trump will push for an end to the conflict.
But in an exchange before reporters before the dinner got underway, both leaders expressed optimism that their success in Iran would mark a new era in the Middle East.
“I think things are going to be really settled down a lot in the Middle East,” Trump said. “And, they respect us and they respect Israel.”
Trump says Iran wants to restart talks, but Iran hasn’t confirmed that.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in an interview published Monday said the U.S. airstrikes so badly damaged his country’s nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction.
The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu may also give new urgency to a US ceasefire proposal being discussed by Israel and Hamas.
White House officials are urging Israel and Hamas to quickly seal a new ceasefire agreement that would bring about a 60-day pause in the fighting, send aid flooding into Gaza and free at least some of the remaining 50 hostages held in the territory, 20 of whom are believed to be living.
Five Israeli soldiers were killed overnight in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said Tuesday. Two other soldiers were seriously wounded.
Meanwhile, health officials in Gaza said Israeli strikes at two locations in the territory killed 18 people.
Israeli media said the infantry soldiers were on patrol when explosive devices were detonated against them.
Media said militants also opened fire on the reinforcements sent to evacuate the dead and wounded.
The soldiers’ deaths came roughly two weeks after Israel reported once of its deadliest days in months in Gaza, when seven soldiers were killed when a Palestinian attacker attached a bomb to their armored vehicle.
Health officials at the Nasser Hospital, where victims of the Israeli strikes were taken, said one of the strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing four people.
A separate strike in Khan Younis killed four people, including a mother, father, and their two children.
In central Gaza, Israeli strikes hit a group of people, killing 10 people and injuring 72 others, according to a statement by Awda Hospital in Nuseirat.
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