Trump envoy Jared Kushner to meet Netanyahu after talks with Hamas on Gaza plan

• Jared Kushner met Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt to push for verifiable disarmament as part of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, which Hamas endorsed but Israel rejected.
• Regional Muslim states condemned Israel's rejection, blaming it for obstructing peace efforts, while Netanyahu opposed the plan amid a tense re-election campaign.
• Despite ceasefire efforts, Israeli airstrikes resumed in Gaza, causing casualties; the conflict has killed over 1,200 Palestinians and five Israeli soldiers since October 2023.

JERUSALEM – US envoy Jared Kushner is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Aug 17 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 US President Donald 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’ new leader Khalil al-Hayya in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of El-Alamein on Aug 16, the latest of once-unthinkable talks between the US and a group it classifies as terrorists, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.

Kushner demanded that Hamas verify that it is giving up its weapons, a key sticking point for Netanyahu, and that Hamas – whose unprecedented Oct 7, 2023, attack against Israel launched the war – renounce any future role in governing Gaza, the sources said.

Behind closed doors, Netanyahu is expected to meet Kushner, who has longstanding family connections with the Israeli leader, as well as Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza on Trump’s “Board of Peace” implementing the plan.

A Hamas official said the group told Kushner that 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 road map agreement. Hamas is awaiting the US administration’s response regarding Israel’s position on the agreement,” the Hamas official said.

The Trump administration has become increasingly comfortable with engaging directly with Hamas in the hope of ending the devastating conflict and negotiated the October 2025 ceasefire agreement that led to the release of the remaining Israeli hostages.

Hardline rhetoric

Netanyahu, who is facing an election in October that polls show will be tight, has increasingly been willing to defy Trump, whose support he once highlighted in his campaign.

Netanyahu has also made clear his unhappiness with Trump’s decision to halt the US-Israeli war on Iran launched in late February and instead to pursue a settlement with Tehran’s clerical state.

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 assured Netanyahu 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.

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 in a podcast with a former Gaza hostage.

“Not only those who endanger you right now. These are people who shouldn’t be alive,” he said. “I’m paying them a compliment by calling them humans.”

On Aug 16, in a joint statement, eight Muslim-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – whose relationship with Israel is considered by Netanyahu to be a key achievement – condemned Israel’s rejection of the Gaza plan.

Israel keeps up strikes

Israel has resumed air strikes in Gaza after a lull following Trump’s promotion of the peace plan, though the October ceasefire had never fully halted the violence in the strip.

Several people were injured on Aug 16 after Israeli aircraft targeted a house west of Nuseirat, said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, which serves as a rescue service under Hamas.

The Israeli military said it was responding to a threat by Islamic Jihad militants and that it had tried to mitigate civilian casualties.

“The terrorists advanced terror attacks and were struck in precise aerial strikes to remove the threat,” it said.

Several others were wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on tents housing displaced people west of Khan Younis, where separately the body of a child, Suhail Shallouf, was recovered after he was killed by Israeli fire on Aug 15, the civil defence agency said.

Israeli operations have killed at least 1,262 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on Oct 10, according to figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is under Hamas. Its figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during Gaza operations over the same period. AFP