Washington is pressing Israel to move forward with a Gaza peace plan and begin disarming Hamas, as President Donald Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner held urgent talks across the region on August 17.
Kushner met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu behind closed doors in Jerusalem, following unprecedented discussions with Hamas leaders a day earlier in Egypt, according to Hurriyet Daily News. The meetings mark a striking shift: the Trump administration, once reluctant to engage the group it designates as terrorists, now sees direct talks as essential to ending the devastating conflict.
At stake is a roadmap that Hamas endorsed two weeks ago but Netanyahu has rejected. The Israeli leader insists any deal must guarantee the militant group is “genuinely disarmed” before troops withdraw from Gaza. Under the plan, Hamas would surrender weapons to a Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with running daily affairs in the territory.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a longtime family friend of Netanyahu, pressed the Israeli prime minister to commit to the agreement. Also present were Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Gaza representative, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, now a senior official on the “Board of Peace” implementing the plan.
Before meeting Netanyahu, Kushner sat down with Hamas’s new leader, Khalil al-Hayya, in El-Alamein, Egypt. A Hamas official said the group reaffirmed its commitment to the roadmap and urged Washington to pressure Israel into compliance.
The push comes as Netanyahu faces a tight October election. Once eager to showcase Trump’s backing, the Israeli leader has grown more defiant, telling his cabinet last week he would not pull troops from Gaza and rejecting the peace plan outright.
For now, the ball is in Washington’s court. Hamas awaits America’s response; Netanyahu digs in. The path to peace narrows with each passing day.
