Kushner Meets Hamas Chief in Egypt, Heads to Netanyahu Next as Gaza Plan Stalls

Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and special envoy, met face to face with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on Sunday. According to AP News, this was a rare direct meeting happening because the Gaza ceasefire deal is stuck.

Kushner wasn't alone. Board of Peace high representative Nickolay Mladenov and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined him, according to AP and KSAT. Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, Qatari diplomat Ali al-Thawadi and a senior Turkish official rounded out the room, according to israelnationalnews, citing Axios reporting.

The meeting aimed to get Hamas to commit, on the record, to specific and verifiable disarmament steps before Kushner sits down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. A source familiar with the talks told Axios the goal was turning vague obligations into "specific measures that could be verified," covering weapons decommissioning, handing governing authority to a Palestinian technocratic government, and deployment of an International Stabilization Force.

A Hamas official told AP the group says it's committed and is waiting on mediators to kick off a 14-day negotiation window to hammer out an implementation timetable. That window can't start until all parties sign off on the road map. The same Hamas official said al-Hayya demanded Israel stop strikes on Gaza and pull back to the "yellow line," a boundary AP notes was never precisely defined, before implementation even begins.

Netanyahu's public break with Washington

Netanyahu rejected the Board of Peace's 15-point plan last week, according to AP and PBS, a rare public break from the U.S., Israel's closest ally. Speaking at a government meeting on August 9, Netanyahu said Israel won't withdraw from its current Gaza positions until Hamas is "genuinely disarmed," not "fictitiously" disarmed, according to the Epoch Times.

"As long as I am prime minister, a Palestinian state will not be established, neither in Gaza nor in Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu said, per Epoch Times.

Breitbart reported that two members of Netanyahu's security cabinet pushed to scrap the deal entirely after the Board of Peace released text calling for a phased Israeli withdrawal. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the released text didn't match what the cabinet had actually approved and demanded a new cabinet vote, according to Breitbart.

The Board of Peace tried to calm things down. On Monday it told Netanyahu that any Israeli withdrawal beyond the yellow line "will take place only once decommissioning is complete," matching what Breitbart described as a commitment Hamas already made to mediators. Doron Spielman, spokesman for Netanyahu's office, told AFP that "Israel has conveyed its comments and concerns on the proposed framework to our American counterparts. The version that has been made public does not reflect Israel's positions."

Israel argues that after the October 7, 2023 attack, and after watching Hamas rebuild tunnel networks and weapons caches during past lulls, a phased withdrawal tied to promises rather than verified disarmament risks handing Hamas the time and space to regroup. Spielman put it directly: "The indispensable first step toward any lasting arrangement is the genuine, verifiable and irreversible demilitarisation of Hamas."

Regional pressure builds against Israel

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the ceasefire mediators issued a joint statement ahead of Monday's meeting saying "Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza," according to AP and KSAT. They called on the Board of Peace and the U.S. to take "immediate and concrete measures" against any party blocking implementation.

Meanwhile, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who controls police and prisons but not the military, called for killing "30 to 40" people in Gaza nightly, saying "there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn't live. They're not even people," according to Fox News. Ben-Gvir also renewed calls for Palestinians to leave Gaza and for Israeli settlements to be rebuilt there. Netanyahu has not endorsed those remarks, and Ben-Gvir does not command Israel's armed forces.

Israeli forces currently control roughly 60% of Gaza, according to AAP, with Netanyahu having said in May the next target was 70% control as Israel "tightens the grip" on Hamas.

Kushner's meeting with Netanyahu on Monday is expected to focus on what AAP and israelnationalnews both describe as the "corresponding steps" Israel would need to take, specifically what triggers a partial withdrawal and when. No date has been set for the 14-day negotiation window Hamas says it's waiting on, and no U.S. or Israeli official has confirmed one will start this week.