Netanyahu delays Washington trip to Monday

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced Sunday that he would be traveling to Washington on Monday morning instead of the previously scheduled Sunday evening.

Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Joe Biden on Tuesday afternoon and address Congress on Wednesday during the visit to Washington, which will mark the premier's first since the formation of his current government in December 2022, according to Israeli daily Haaretz.

The statement did not explain the reasons behind the delay, which follows deadly airstrikes by Israel on the western Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah.

The Israeli military has claimed responsibility for the strikes, which Netanyahu called a "direct response" to a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv on Friday, which killed one Israeli and injured ten others.

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported that Netanyahu plans to meet with the Israeli negotiating team before his departure to Washington to discuss Tel Aviv's stance in hostage exchange negotiations with Palestinian group Hamas.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

Nearly 39,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,600 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi