President Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, a day after holding rare talks with a senior Hamas leader in Cairo as Washington seeks to revive its stalled Gaza peace plan.
Kushner’s diplomatic push comes amid continuing disagreements over a U.S.-backed proposal that would require Hamas to surrender its weapons in exchange for a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Netanyahu publicly rejected the agreement earlier this month, insisting that Israeli troops would leave Gaza only after Hamas and other armed groups in the territory had been completely disarmed.
Under Trump’s proposal, Hamas’s disarmament and Israel’s withdrawal would take place in stages. An International Stabilization Force would then work alongside a new Palestinian police force to provide security in Gaza.
The negotiations come at a politically sensitive time for Netanyahu, whose governing coalition is trailing in opinion polls ahead of Israel’s October 27 national election. Diplomats say the Israeli government is unlikely to make major concessions over Gaza before the vote.
Kushner was joined at Monday’s meeting by Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace envoy for Gaza and a former United Nations official who has played a key role in negotiations.
Mladenov helped broker last month’s disarmament agreement and is closely involved in efforts to implement Trump’s original 20-point plan aimed at ending the Gaza conflict.
Progress, however, has remained limited. Israel has continued carrying out strikes in Gaza despite agreeing to a ceasefire under the broader peace initiative.
Hamas agreed last month to a new U.S.-backed 15-point roadmap designed to advance the process, but Israel rejected the proposal.
The Jerusalem meeting followed talks in Cairo on Sunday involving Kushner, Mladenov and regional mediators. A source said senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya participated in some of those discussions.
The latest diplomatic effort underscores Washington’s push to bridge the remaining differences between Israel and Hamas, with the sequencing of Hamas’s disarmament and Israel’s military withdrawal remaining a central obstacle to implementing the Gaza plan.
