Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked US President Donald Trump for more help to receive a pardon from Israel's president, Axios has reported this week.
Netanyahu made the request during a lengthy phone conversation with Trump on Monday, Axios wrote, citing two US officials and one Israeli official familiar with the matter. The two leaders also discussed Israel's ongoing occupations of Gaza and Syria.
Netanyahu's trial on multiple corruption charges began in May 2020, but the drawn-out proceedings were halted in October 2023 due to the start of Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The trial resumed this week, with prosecutors questioning Netanyahu in the Tel Aviv District Court in Wednesday's session.
In the most serious case, prosecutors say the prime minister provided regulatory and other benefits to the owner of the Walla news site and the telecommunications firm Bezeq, in exchange for favorable media coverage.
Last month, Trump sent an official letter to Israeli President Isaac Herzog calling on him to issue a pardon for Netanyahu.
On Sunday, Netanyahu's lawyer sent an official letter and 111 pages of documents to Herzog formally requesting a pardon. The Israeli prime minister claims he needs a pardon to lead Israel's ongoing low-intensity wars in Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon. Herzog said he is reviewing Netanyahu's request, but the process of reaching a decision could take two months.
During Monday's call, "Trump told Netanyahu he thinks the pardon will work out but didn't commit to any further steps," Axios wrote, citing a US official. "Netanyahu wants Trump to do more, but the president has done all he can do," a second US official added.
During the call, Trump allegedly told Netanyahu he should be "a better partner" in implementing the peace agreement with Syria. Trump also allegedly told Netanyahu to "take it easy" in Syria after Israeli strikes killed 13 people in the village of Beit Jinn earlier this month.
"The president told Netanyahu that the new leadership in Syria is trying to make it a better place," one of the US officials said. Since coming to power one year ago with Israeli assistance, Syria's new government has carried out a series of major massacres against the country's minority Alawite and Druze populations.
On Wednesday, Israel carried out additional strikes in Syria, this time on the outskirts of Beit Jinn in the western Damascus countryside near Mount Hermon.
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Trump also questioned the Israeli prime minister's decision last month to kill 40 Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels in the Israeli-controlled areas of Gaza rather than allowing them to surrender, as Trump had asked.
Trump had allegedly encouraged Netanyahu to give some 200 trapped Hamas fighters amnesty in exchange for surrendering, seeing it as a model for disarming Hamas throughout the strip and as a way to advance the ceasefire.
On Wednesday, Israeli drone strikes killed five Palestinians, including two children, in the Al-Mawasi tent camp in Gaza. Since the start of the genocide in October 2023, Israel has killed at least 70,112 Palestinians, according to Gaza sources, including at least 357 since a US-backed ceasefire went into effect in October of this year.
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