Washington on Aug. 17 exerted pressure on Israel to push forward the peace plan for the Gaza Strip and agree to move into the phase of disarming Hamas, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Jared Kushner, holding high-level talks in the region.
Kushner met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Aug. 17 in Jerusalem after holding talks with Hamas leaders, as he tries to revive a Gaza peace plan that Israel has so far rejected.
Netanyahu met behind closed doors with Kushner, who has long 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.
Israeli media reported that former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, now a senior Board of Peace official, also attended.
The meeting comes two weeks after the Palestinian Islamist group endorsed the latest stage of Trump’s Gaza plan, which Netanyahu has refused to support, insisting any settlement must ensure the group is “genuinely disarmed.”
Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory.
Before talks with Netanyahu, Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, met Hamas’s new leader Khalil al-Hayya in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of El-Alamein on Aug. 16, the latest of once-unthinkable talks between the United States and a group it classifies as terrorists.
Kushner demanded that the group verify it is giving up its weapons, a key sticking point for Netanyahu, and that Hamas any future role in governing the Palestinian territory, the sources said.
A Hamas official said the group told Kushner it was committed to the Gaza plan and wanted pressure on Netanyahu.
“Hamas is demanding that the U.S. administration... pressure Netanyahu’s government to adhere to and implement the roadmap agreement. Hamas is awaiting the U.S. 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 2025 ceasefire agreement that led to the release of remaining Israeli hostages.
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.
