Speaking to reporters at the beginning of their meeting, Netanyahu said Israel was working with the United States to find countries who would give Palestinians a better future.

"He's forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other," Netanyahu said at a dinner with Trump at the White House.

Trump has received multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations from supporters and loyal lawmakers over the years, and has made no secret of his irritation at missing out on the prestigious award.

The Republican has complained that he had been overlooked by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for his mediating role in conflicts between India and Pakistan, as well as Serbia and Kosovo.

He has also demanded credit for "keeping peace" between Egypt and Ethiopia and brokering the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements aiming to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab nations.

Trump campaigned for office as a "peacemaker" who would use his negotiating skills to quickly end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, although both conflicts are still raging more than five months into his presidency.

Israel's campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, displaced almost the entire population of more than 2 million people, sparked a humanitarian crisis in the enclave and left much of the territory in ruins.

In Gaza City, children walked through debris, where residents said an Israeli airstrike had hit overnight, with children among the casualties. The Israeli military did not immediately provide details on the target of the strike.

"We hope that a ceasefire will be reached and that the massacres against the Palestinian people will stop," said Mohammed Joundiya, standing in the rubble left in the aftermath of the attack. 

At Israel's parliament in Jerusalem, former hostage Keith Siegel, who was released in February in a previous ceasefire, described the anguish of those held incommunicado for hundreds of days in Hamas captivity. "We have a window of opportunity to save lives," he said, "every minute is critical." 

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