Kushner to meet Netanyahu after talks with Hamas on Gaza plan

Jerusalem: US envoy Jared Kushner is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday 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 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’s new leader Khalil al-Hayya in the Egyptian Meditarranean city of El-Alamein on Sunday, sources with knowledge of the talks told AFP.

Kushner pushed for Hamas to take “concrete, verifiable steps” and relayed a message that “Gaza can never again be a source of terror for Israel”, said one source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions.

Hamas again voiced its commitment to the plan, another source said.

The group said afterwards that it had called on mediators and Trump’s so-called Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to “approve the roadmap… and begin establishing a timetable for its implementation”.

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A picture released by host Egypt did not include al-Hayya, but showed Kushner at a table alongside members of the Board of Peace, including British former prime minister Tony Blair. Qatar and Turkey, key mediators alongside Egypt, also joined.

The United States refused contact for years with Hamas.

But the Trump administration has increasingly been comfortable with direct contact in hopes of ending the devastating conflict, negotiating the October ceasefire agreement that led to the release of remaining Israeli hostages.

– Muslim states press Israel –

The three regional mediator countries and five fellow Muslim nations — Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Indonesia — on Sunday condemned Israel’s rejection of the plan.

In a joint statement, they said “Israel bears direct and full responsibility” for obstructing peace, adding its refusal “directly threatens to derail extensive efforts” by Trump.

In response, Netanyahu’s Likud Party charged that “the Arab countries want to bring down the prime minister” in the election.

The inclusion of the UAE is significant as it normalised relations with Israel five years ago, kickstarting an economic and strategic relationship that Netanyahu considers a key achievement.

Netanyahu expressed opposition to the US plan even after he was assured by Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, that Israel would not need to pull troops out of the war-battered territory until complete disarmament by Hamas.

The board had initially said Israel would start a phased withdrawal in tandem with Hamas’s disarmament.

– Israel keeps up strikes –

Israel has resumed airstrikes 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 Sunday 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.

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

Israeli operations have killed at least 1,262 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, according to figures by Gaza’s health ministry, which is under Hamas. Its figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.