{"id":740368,"date":"2026-08-17T02:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T02:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/740368\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T02:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T02:14:12","slug":"jared-kushner-meets-with-hamas-ahead-of-talks-with-netanyahu-on-gaza-jared-kushner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/740368\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared Kushner meets with Hamas ahead of talks with Netanyahu on Gaza | Jared Kushner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and envoy, Jared Kushner<\/a>, held a rare meeting with Hamas<\/a>\u2019s political chief on Sunday in Egypt<\/a>, in a new diplomatic effort to make progress in the stalled Gaza ceasefire. Kushner will meet on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure after rejecting the new 15-point, US-backed road map.<\/p>\n

The talks aim to salvage the plan for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territory shattered by war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At stake are the lives of some 2 million people in Gaza and reconstruction of the crowded enclave now largely controlled by Israeli forces, more than 10 months since the ceasefire ended major military operations. A meeting<\/a> between Kushner, fellow envoy Steve Witkoff and Hamas leaders in Egypt last year helped<\/a> clinch<\/a> the ceasefire, whose progress until now had been stalled over the key issue of Hamas\u2019s disarmament.<\/p>\n

The over two-hour meeting in Egypt<\/a> with Hamas\u2019s political chief, Khalil al-Hayya, was confirmed by a regional official and a Hamas official, both speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. Kushner was one of a trio of envoys meeting with al-Hayya, with officials from mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey also there.<\/p>\n

Hamas in a statement later called on mediators and the US-created Board of Peace<\/a> overseeing the ceasefire to \u201ccompel\u201d Israel to approve the road map for next steps.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, last week rejected<\/a> the 15-point plan in a rare public show of defiance<\/a> against the Trump administration, Israel\u2019s closest ally.<\/p>\n

Kushner; Tony Blair, the former British prime minister; and Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace director, are to meet with Netanyahu on Monday, according to a source familiar with the plans and a diplomatic source. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting.<\/p>\n

Several regional powers including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement condemning Israel\u2019s rejection of the road map, saying: \u201cIsrael now bears responsibility for obstructing the efforts to bring peace in Gaza.\u201d Other signers included Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the ceasefire mediators.<\/p>\n

Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi receives Jared Kushner in New Alamein, Egypt, on Sunday, in the presence of foreign minister Badr Abdelatty and general intelligence service chief Hassan Rashad. Photograph: Egyptian President Office\/APAImages\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The foreign ministers\u2019 statement called on the Board of Peace and the US to take \u201cimmediate and concrete measures\u201d to keep any party from obstructing the plan\u2019s implementation.<\/p>\n

Kushner\u2019s meeting with the Hamas<\/a> leader aimed at ensuring the militant group\u2019s commitment to the road map, particularly disarmament, before his meeting with Netanyahu, the regional official said.<\/p>\n

The Hamas official said the group is committed and waiting for mediators to start the 14-day negotiation period to work out a timetable for implementation. That period requires all parties\u2019 approval of the road map to begin.<\/p>\n

The Hamas official also said the Hamas leader demanded that Israel halt its attacks on Gaza<\/a> and withdraw to the so-called \u201cyellow line\u201d dividing the territory before beginning implementation. The yellow line was never precisely defined. Israeli forces have moved beyond it and now control about 60% of Gaza.<\/p>\n

In May, Netanyahu said<\/a> the next step was to move to 70% control, with Israel \u201ctightening the grip\u201d on Hamas \u201cfrom every direction\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israel has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians<\/a> in Gaza, and wounded more than 4,100 since agreeing<\/a> to the ceasefire on 10 October 2025, according to Gaza\u2019s health ministry.<\/p>\n

The White House referred questions about Kushner\u2019s meetings to the Board of Peace, which did not immediately comment. The Tony Blair Institute did not comment.<\/p>\n

Under the road map, Hamas would hand over weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee daily operations in the territory. The committee has not yet entered Gaza. But Hamas has linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the creation of a Palestinian state, something Israel\u2019s current government rejects.<\/p>\n

The road map involves Hamas gradually giving up its weapons while Israeli forces halt attacks and begin withdrawing from Gaza. But Netanyahu says Israel will not retreat from any position in Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed.<\/p>\n

That stance leaves other elements of the ceasefire on hold, including reconstruction and the deployment of international forces to separate Israeli forces from committee-controlled areas.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu faces a challenging election<\/a> on 27 October as he tries to hold on to power with a coalition that includes ministers taking a harsh line on Gaza, and it\u2019s not clear whether he will take decisive steps on the ceasefire before then. Also coming up is the three-year anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party on Sunday responded to the statement by regional powers by claiming \u201cArab states want to topple\u201d Netanyahu so that centrist challenger Gadi Eisenkot and center-left party leader Yair Golan \u201cwill give them everything they want. That will not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Mackey contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law and envoy, Jared Kushner, held a rare meeting with Hamas\u2019s political chief on Sunday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-740368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}