Trump urges Gazans to relocate, welcomes Netanyahu

US President Donald Trump says he would support an effort to permanently resettle Palestinians from Gaza to places where they can live without fear of violence.

Welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Tuesday, Trump said he and his team have been discussing the possibility of resettlement with Jordan, Egypt and other countries in the region.

He said he would like to see an agreement to "resettle people permanently in nice homes and where they can be happy and not be shot, not be killed."

Trump again called for Jordan and Egypt to take in Gazans, saying Palestinians there had no alternative but to leave the coastal strip while it is being rebuilt after nearly 16 months of a devastating war between Israel and Hamas militants.

"It's a pure demolition site. If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that's for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza," he told reporters in the Oval Office.

"I don't know how they (Palestinians) could want to stay," Trump said when asked about the reaction of Palestinian and Arab leaders to his proposal.

That echoed the wishes of Israel's far right and contradicts former president Joe Biden's commitment against mass displacement of Palestinians.

Arab states and the Palestinian Authority have rejected the idea, which some human rights advocates have likened to ethnic cleansing.

Trump was hosting Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the future of the Gaza ceasefire, strategies to counter Iran and hopes for a renewed push for an Israeli-Saudi normalisation deal.

The meeting, Trump's first with a foreign leader since returning to office on January 20, was meant to showcase close ties between the president and Netanyahu after a period of strained relations between the prime minister and Biden over Israel's handling of the war in Gaza.

Earlier, talks started on the second phase of the Gaza Strip ceasefire deal, a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas says.

The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into force on January 19 after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners.

Phase two of the three-phase deal is intended to focus on agreements on the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.

"Contacts and negotiation on the second phase have begun," Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said, without providing further details.

Netanyahu's office said earlier that Israel was preparing to send a high-level delegation to the Qatari capital Doha to discuss continued implementation of the deal.

The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the US, has remained largely intact but prospects for a durable settlement are unclear.

The war began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 in which 1200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip since then has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, Palestinian health authorities say.

Hamas and Netanyahu's government, which includes hardliners who opposed the ceasefire deal, say they are committed to reaching an agreement in the second phase although each has criticised the other over its implementation.

Israeli leaders say Hamas cannot remain in the Gaza Strip but the movement has taken every opportunity it could to show the control it still exerts despite the loss of much of its former leadership and thousands of fighters during the war.

Qanoua said Israel had stalled in implementing the humanitarian protocol of the ongoing first phase, hindering the repair of hospitals, roads, water wells and infrastructure destroyed by Israel's 15-month offensive.