Gaza plan
JERUSALEM
US envoy Jared Kushner is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday after holding talks with Hamas leaders in Egypt aimed at reviving a US-backed Gaza peace plan that Israel has so far rejected.
The meeting comes two weeks after Hamas endorsed the latest stage of Trump’s Gaza plan, which Netanyahu has refused to support, insisting any settlement must ensure the group is “genuinely disarmed.” Kushner — Trump’s son-in-law — met Hamas’s new leader Khalil Al-Hayya in the Egyptian Meditarranean city of El-Alamein on Sunday, sources with knowledge of the talks told media.
Kushner pushed for Hamas to take “concrete, verifiable steps” and relayed a message that “Gaza can never again be a source of terror for Israel,” said one source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions. Hamas again voiced its commitment to the plan, another source said.
The group said afterwards that it had called on mediators and Trump’s so-called Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to “approve the roadmap… and begin establishing a timetable for its implementation.” A picture released by host Egypt did not include Al-Hayya, but showed Kushner at a table alongside members of the Board of Peace, including British former prime minister Tony Blair. Qatar and Turkiye, key mediators alongside Egypt, also joined.
The United States refused contact for years with Hamas, which it classifies as a terrorist organization. But the Trump administration has increasingly been comfortable with direct contact in hopes of ending the devastating conflict, negotiating the October ceasefire agreement that led to the release of remaining Israeli hostages.
Axios journalist, Barak Ravid said Hamas leaders reiterated and confirmed, in a meeting with President Trump’s advisor, Jared Kushner, in Egypt on Sunday, their commitment to disarmament and demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, according to a source familiar with the details of the meeting.
The source said that the 90-minute meeting was “very productive” and aimed at ensuring that Hamas is committed to taking practical steps toward demilitarizing Gaza, said Ravid.
According to Ravid, Hamas leaders said they are ready to transfer civilian control in Gaza to the Palestinian technocratic government, once it is ready to begin operating in the Strip, and committed not to interfere with its work, during the meeting.
Kushner and his team also met with Egyptian President el-Sisi, and separately with members of the Palestinian technocratic government. El-Sisi told Kushner that much of the regional instability in recent years stemmed from the situation in Gaza. Egypt’s president emphasized that stabilizing Gaza would also help stabilize the entire region, the source said.
