US President Donald Trump said talks with Israel and other countries on the Middle East were "progressing."

"Discussions on the Middle East with Israel and various other countries are progressing; (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu is coming in on Tuesday, and I think we have some big meetings scheduled," Trump told reporters.

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived in Washington, D.C., ahead of his meeting with Trump on Tuesday.

Netanyahu is scheduled to meet on Monday with Steve Witkoff, Trump's envoy to the Middle East.

During Monday's meeting with Witkoff, the two sides are expected to discuss extending the first phase of the ceasefire and hostage release agreement with Hamas or moving forward to the second phase. Israel is scheduled to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor on the 50th day of the agreement that began on January 19.

Trump will meet with Netanyahu to discuss the modus operandi of the negotiations on Tuesday in a formal meeting and then at a White House dinner to discuss the modus operandi of the negotiations.

On Sunday morning, before leaving for Washington, Netanyahu told reporters: “The fact that this will be President Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since taking office is very significant. I think this is a testament to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance. It is also a testament to the strength of our personal friendship; friendship and cooperation have already yielded important results for the Middle East, including the historic Abraham Accords that President Trump led, which brought four historic peace treaties between Israel and its neighbors.”

He pointed out that "in this meeting, we will deal with the critical issues facing Israel and our region: victory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages, and dealing with the Iranian terror axis and all its components, which threatens the peace of Israel, the Middle East, and the entire world."

Netanyahu claimed: “The decisions we made in the war really changed the face of the Middle East. Our decisions and the courage of our soldiers redrawn the map and I believe that working with President Trump we can redraw it even more, for the better. I believe we can strengthen security, expand the circle of peace and bring about a wonderful era of peace through strength.”

The Financial Times published a report on Sunday asking whether Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu would stop the war in Gaza. It said he must make the decision before he arrives in Washington and meets with President Donald Trump.

The newspaper said that Netanyahu has refused to discuss his vision for the future of Gaza throughout the 16 months of war. The discussion in his meeting with Trump is expected to focus on whether the temporary truce agreed to last month - and scheduled to continue for another four weeks - will become a permanent ceasefire.

The newspaper points out that publicly, Netanyahu said that he was committed to the two goals he set at the beginning of the war: destroying Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and returning all the prisoners captured during the movement's attack on October 7, 2023, by military force.

But it is clearer than ever that these two goals are incompatible. No sooner had the fighting ended, which marked the beginning of an operation that would eventually bring back 33 prisoners, than Hamas fighters emerged to reassert control over the coastal area, displaying their weapons and holding mass rallies.

It was a shocking reminder to Netanyahu and Israel that the “complete victory” that Netanyahu had always promised, despite Israel’s brutal war on the besieged Strip, which killed at least 47,000 Palestinians according to local authorities, was an illusion.

The newspaper quotes former intelligence official Michael Milstein as saying that the war "did not lead to the collapse of Hamas or the return of the prisoners," adding that Israel "achieved tactical, not strategic, achievements. Hamas remains the dominant ruler in Gaza, point below zero."

International mediators, led by the United States, are set to begin talks next week on the details of the second phase of the ceasefire. It is expected to be a tough negotiation to secure the release of dozens more prisoners and get the warring parties to agree to a full ceasefire. Netanyahu will soon need to decide whether he is willing to see the deal through. On the one hand, he will have to take into account the mercurial Trump, his most important international patron, who forced him to accept the initial 42-day truce and focus on the return of the prisoners as a primary goal.