TEL AVIV: US President Donald Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday after holding talks with Hamas leaders, as he tries to revive a Gaza peace plan that Israel has so far rejected.
The meeting comes two weeks after the Palestinian group endorsed the latest stage of Trump’s Gaza plan, which Netanyahu has refused to support, insisting any settlement must ensure Hamas’s disarmament.
Kushner — Trump’s son-in-law — met Hamas’s new leader Khalil al-Hayya in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of El-Alamein on Sunday, sources with knowledge of the discussions told AFP.
Kushner demanded that the Palestinian group verify it is giving up its weapons, a key sticking point for Netanyahu, and that Hamas renounce any future role in governing the Palestinian territory, the sources said, according to AFP.
Netanyahu is expected to meet behind closed doors with Kushner as well as Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza on Trump’s “Board of Peace” implementing the plan, AFP reported.
Israeli media reported that former UK prime minister Tony Blair, now a senior Board of Peace official, would also attend.
A Hamas official, cited by AFP, said the Palestinian group told Kushner it was committed to the Gaza plan and wanted pressure on Netanyahu.
“Hamas is demanding that the US administration… pressure Netanyahu’s government to adhere to and implement the roadmap agreement. Hamas is awaiting the US administration’s response regarding Israel’s position on the agreement,” the Hamas official told AFP.
The Trump administration has become increasingly comfortable with engaging directly with Hamas in the hope of ending the devastating conflict, and negotiated the October ceasefire agreement that led to the release of remaining Israeli hostages.
Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza
Netanyahu, who is facing elections in October that polls show will be tight, has increasingly been willing to defy Trump, whose support he once highlighted in his campaign.
After initially voicing muted criticism of the Gaza plan, Netanyahu last week told his cabinet that he rejected it and vowed not to pull troops from the Palestinian territory.
The stance came even though Mladenov had assured him that Israel would not need to withdraw until a full disarmament by Hamas, backtracking on the Board of Peace’s earlier calls for Israel to start a phased withdrawal.
Also Read: Muslim Nations Condemn Israel’s Rejection of Gaza Peace Plan, Palestinian Statehood
In an interview, Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right national security minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet, called for mass killings in Gaza.
“I think targeted eliminations should be carried out in Gaza every night. Take out 30 or 40,” Ben Gvir said on a podcast with a former Gaza hostage.
“These are people who shouldn’t be alive,” he said. “I’m paying them a compliment by calling them humans.”
Israel has resumed airstrikes in Gaza after a lull following Trump’s promotion of the peace plan, although the October ceasefire had never fully halted the violence in the Strip.
Israeli operations have killed at least 1,265 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, according to figures by Gaza’s health ministry.
