Israel and the US-backed Board of Peace have agreed to establish two working groups on Gaza after what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office described as “deep and constructive discussions” on Monday.
US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner held a four-hour meeting with Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem, a day after meeting Hamas leaders and mediators in Egypt, to try to move forward a new proposal from the Board of Peace for Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu’s office said after the meeting that Israel and the Board of Peace would set up one working group to focus on the disarmament and demilitarisation of Gaza, which they agreed should be carried out promptly and completed before reconstruction begins in the enclave,
The second working group will focus on sanitation, clean water and other public health issues affecting Gaza’s population and also impacting people in Israel, it said.
Mr Kushner pressed Mr Netanyahu during the meeting to "not create obstacles" to the Trump-backed plan, Israeli sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.
Mr Kushner described it as a "good meeting".
"I think there were some valid concerns they raised that we were able to address," he told Fox News. "We're very committed to the fact that we have a plan to rebuild Gaza, but we will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until the demilitarisation occurs."
Mr Kushner said that progress towards that goal could occur in as little as 30 days, but that co-operation was needed from both sides.
He described the situation as a "win-win" for Israel, because if armed groups in Gaza are demilitarised, a significant security threat would be eliminated, and if Hamas and other groups do not disarm, Israel would receive US and international support to "finish the job in the appropriate way".
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also met Mr Kushner and representatives of the Board of Peace. Mr Herzog said he "commended and encouraged their efforts to ensure a brighter and more secure future for the people of Israel, the people of Gaza, and the entire region".
Mr Netanyahu last week rejected a new Board of Peace proposal, announced on July 30, for Israeli forces to withdraw from the Palestinian territory in tandem with Hamas's disarmament. Mr Netanyahu, who is standing for re-election in October, told Mr Kushner and Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov that Hamas would have to make the first move, CNN reported.
He is campaigning on national security and sees Israel's military occupation of Gaza as a part of that.
Under the new proposal, Hamas will have to hand over its heavy weapons, arms factories, bases, rocket launchers and maps of its underground tunnels to representatives of the three mediators. The mediators will then turn these over to a UN-backed committee of independent Palestinian technocrats that will take over the day-to-day administration of Gaza.
Mr Trump suggested to Fox News on Monday that 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's 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 days after the new proposal was announced, has urged Israel to accept the deal to disarm Hamas, saying it would ensure there would never be a repeat of the attack of October 7, 2023, on southern Israel.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, another member of the Board of Peace, also took part in the talks in Jerusalem on Monday, CNN said.
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.
