Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid to fly to Washington for talks amid U.S. rift with PM Netanyahu

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid will fly to Washington on Sunday for talks.

Lapid will meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and several influential senators, the politician announced on his Telegram channel on Saturday. Further details were not initially disclosed.

Lapid is the leader of the centrist Future Party.

The relationship between the US administration under President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cooled considerably recently.

Tensions exist above all because of the way Israel is waging war in the Gaza Strip, with many civilian casualties and massive damage, and because of the humanitarian aid that Israel has failed to provide from the US perspective.

Washington is therefore seeking proximity to political rivals and opponents of Netanyahu.

A month ago, Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin received the minister in the Israeli war Cabinet, Benny Gantz.

The war Cabinet was created a few days after the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 7, and Gantz joined it as an opposition politician. Lapid had declined the invitation to join the war Cabinet at the time.

More than 32,500 Palestinians are said to have been killed in Israeli attacks so far and many more thousands injured.