WORLD NEWS – Netanyahu meets with Trump to discuss hostages in Gaza and tariffs

Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be meeting with President Trump. As the war in Gaza approaches a year and a half. Netanyahu says that he expects to discuss efforts to release Israeli hostages from Gaza and new tariffs from the U.S. Trump recently imposed 17% tariffs on Israel as part of new trade measures in goods from many companies. Netanyahu is now facing increasingly mounting pressure at home from former Israeli security chiefs, protestors, and the families of hostages who are still being held in Gaza. During Netanyahu’s last visit with Trump in February Trump suggested that the U.S. should take over the Gaza Strip. 

Human rights groups and the UN have criticized the blockade imposed saying that it violated international law. Israel’s government says that it wants to increase the pressure on Hamas to release all hostages and eventually eliminate the militant group.