![Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, during news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 [Francis Chung/Politico/Bloombeg via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-2197239121-scaled-e1738842874468.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
US and Israeli officials are attempting to contain the escalating tensions behind the scenes following the unprecedented direct talks held by the US President Donald Trump administration with the Palestinian movement Hamas ahead of crucial negotiations on Gaza this week.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios news site on Monday that “President Trump fully backs and supports” the talks his hostage envoy Adam Boehler held with Hamas.
“But the administration is also signalling it doesn’t want those talks — and Israel’s anger over them — to block other paths to a Gaza deal,” added the news site.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refrained from publicly criticising Trump since Axios revealed the US-Hamas talks last Wednesday.
READ: Hamas agrees to release US-Israeli captive in exchange for resuming negotiations
Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.
Spotted an error on this page? Let us know
Latest news
See all
