US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli media reported, a day after meeting Hamas leaders and mediators in Egypt, in an attempt to move forward a new proposal from the US-led Board of Peace for Gaza.
Mr Kushner was accompanied by the board's envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, and former British prime minister Tony Blair – a member of the board who had been initially poised to become its head.
Mr Netanyahu, who is standing for re-election in October, is campaigning on national security and sees Israel's military occupation of Gaza as a part of that. He has rejected the US-backed plan announced on July 30 for Israeli forces to withdraw from the Palestinian territory in tandem with Hamas's disarmament, despite the militant group's acceptance of the deal.
The plan requires Hamas to hand over its heavy weapons, military manufacturing facilities, bases, rocket launchers and maps of its underground tunnels to representatives of the three mediators. They will then turn them over to a UN-backed committee of independent Palestinian technocrats.
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Mr Trump suggested there had been progress on getting Hamas to disarm. “We have our own relationship with Hamas. They are giving up their guns,” he said.
Mr Kushner is expected to convey to Mr Netanyahu the group's willingness to abide by the disarmament plan, in exchange for Israel's compliance with the agreement.
His meeting with Hamas in the Egyptian coastal city of Al Alamein was attended by mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, including the head of Egypt's intelligence service Hassan Rashad, sources told The National.
Mr Mladenov, who met Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem a week ago, has urged Israel to accept the deal to disarm Hamas, saying it would ensure that the deadly attack of October 7, 2023 would never happen again.
Disarming Hamas is part of Mr Trump's 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, which began with a ceasefire taking effect in October last year. However there has been little progress in fulfilling the conditions of its initial stage, including the unfettered entry of aid, rubble clearance and the start of rebuilding in the strip.
The UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Sunday issued a statement condemning Israel’s rejection of Palestinian statehood and its obstruction of efforts to bring peace to Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where deadly settler violence against Palestinians has been on the rise.
