Already, the fragile deal has come under considerable stress, and it could collapse in the weeks to come. Yet for the time being, the fighting has stopped in both Gaza and Lebanon, and hostages have begun to come home.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk in the midst of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington, U.S., January 28, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb.

US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his proposal to “clean out” Gaza by removing Palestinians living there to Jordan and Egypt, a plan which has appalled some allies but has been quickly embraced by Israel’s far right.

Some troops had been expected to withdraw to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans to go home. But Israel said the hostage exchange before that step had not gone as agreed. Hamas accused Israel of stalling.

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians began returning home to northern Gaza on Monday, bracing for what awaits them in a region that has been reduced to rubble by months of brutal bombardment and fighting.

Israel began allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return on Monday to the heavily destroyed northern Gaza Strip for the first time since the early weeks of the 15-month war with Hamas. The U.