US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and prime aide Jared Kushner met with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya within the Egyptian coastal metropolis of El-Alamein on Sunday, an Arab diplomat advised The Instances of Israel, at the same time as Israel stored up strikes concentrating on terror teams within the Strip.
Kushner was joined by Board of Peace senior envoys Nickolay Mladenov and Tony Blair, in addition to prime diplomats from Mideast mediating nations Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.
Sunday’s assembly was Kushner’s first with Hayya and different Hamas officers since October 2025, when he sat down with them for the primary time to finalize a ceasefire and hostage launch take care of Israel.
Trump officers have defended the engagement with the US-designated terror group as obligatory for advancing Washington’s Gaza peace plan, whereas critics have argued that such conferences legitimize Hamas.
Kushner used the assembly to lean on Hamas to start implementing the Board of Peace’s disarmament plan that it agreed to on July 30, the Arab diplomat from one of many mediating nations stated.
Hayya advised Kushner that Hamas stays dedicated to the plan, however will solely implement it if Israel upholds its finish of the cut price, noting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public rejection of the proposal, the Arab diplomat stated.
Kushner sought to guarantee Hayya that the US-controlled Board of Peace would lean on Israel to halt strikes in Gaza and regularly withdraw from the Strip as soon as Hamas begins handing over its weapons, the diplomat added.
Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will conduct no withdrawals till Hamas has been fully disarmed, although a Board of Peace supply has advised The Instances of Israel that the premier privately has proven extra flexibility.
Whereas Board of Peace officers had touted an preliminary halt on Israeli strikes in Gaza, which adopted Hamas’s acceptance of the disarmament plan, IDF killings within the Strip have picked up once more over the previous week.
Kushner, in the course of the Sunday assembly, pressed Hamas to stop reveals of power all through the Strip, which have included the deployment of armed and uniformed Hamas members on the streets of Gaza, the Arab diplomat stated.
He additionally urged the Hamas delegation led by Hayya to permit for a clean handover of governing authority within the Strip to the brand new Palestinian technocratic authorities overseen by the Board of Peace, referred to as the Nationwide Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the diplomat stated.
Whereas the Board of Peace hoped to conduct the primary handover of weapons from Hamas to the NCAG within the coming weeks, the Arab diplomat stated that’s unlikely to happen earlier than the tip of the yr, because the Worldwide Stabilization Power tasked with aiding within the course of was nonetheless within the very preliminary phases of coaching.
Furthermore, the diplomat expressed skepticism that Netanyahu would enable for any important progress of the Board of Peace disarmament plan earlier than the October 27 Knesset election. There’ll then seemingly be an extra one- to two-month lull in progress, as the subsequent Israeli authorities is about up.
Whereas senior Trump administration officers have been prepared to have interaction at instances with Hamas, the extra reasonable Palestinian Authority has not acquired any conferences from such senior Trump officers, who’ve paid much less consideration to developments within the West Financial institution, the place the PA has nominal authority.
Each Kushner and Hayya held extra conferences in Egypt, with Kushner sitting down with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi and Hayya assembly with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad.
The assembly between Kushner and Sissi “emphasised the necessity for all events to satisfy their obligations below the Gaza Strip ceasefire settlement,” in keeping with presidential spokesperson Mohamed El-Shennawy.
Kushner departed Egypt on Sunday night for Israel, the place he’ll meet on Monday with Netanyahu, along with Mladenov and Blair.
Along with halting strikes in Gaza and pushing for Israeli withdrawals within the occasion that Hamas begins disarming, Kushner will lean on Netanyahu to satisfy humanitarian-related commitments that had been made as a part of the October 2025 ceasefire, the Arab diplomat stated.
These embrace permitting 600 vehicles per day of support into the Strip and permitting the restore of important infrastructure all through the enclave.
Further Israeli authorizations are additionally wanted to permit for the deployment of the ISF in Gaza and the institution of a pilot humanitarian zone that the Board of Peace needs to determine on the ruins of the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah.
As for the Yellow Line ceasefire demarcation, which Israel unilaterally pushed towards the coast to offer it management of over 60 p.c of Gaza — in violation of the October ceasefire that left the IDF answerable for roughly 53 p.c — Kushner will not be anticipated to lift the problem throughout his conferences with Netanyahu, the Arab diplomat stated.
A Board of Peace supply advised The Instances of Israel final week that Israeli forces aren’t bodily deployed alongside the brand new Yellow Line and it due to this fact will not be a significant concern for the Gaza deal mediators.
Strikes proceed
In the meantime, on Sunday, the Israeli army stated it focused two terror operatives, who had been advancing assaults, in two separate strikes.
A member of the fear group Palestinian Islamic Jihad was focused in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, and a Hamas operative was focused in Nuseirat in central Gaza, in keeping with the army.
“The terrorists superior terror assaults and had been struck in exact aerial strikes to take away the risk,” the military says.
Palestinian media reported that a number of folks had been injured in each strikes.
The Gaza strikes got here a day after an IDF tank was struck by a Hamas explosive system within the southern Gaza Strip, with the Israeli army decrying the incident as a violation of the ceasefire within the enclave.
The Israel Protection Forces stated the incident happened throughout operations of the Givati Brigade close to the Yellow Line, which divides the Israeli-held a part of Gaza from the Hamas-held half, with no accidents brought on.
Amid efforts to advance a US-backed plan to disarm Hamas within the Strip, Israel quietly halted airstrikes in Gaza for every week earlier than resuming them on Wednesday.
The US-backed Board of Peace is making an attempt to maneuver ahead with its roadmap for postwar Gaza, which Hamas has accepted, whereas calling on the US and different mediators to pressure Israel into settlement. The phobia group has prevented the usage of the time period “disarmament,” saying as an alternative that it agrees handy over weapons to be saved below a US-backed Palestinian technocrat administration, the Nationwide Committee for the Administration of Gaza, that will run affairs within the territory as an alternative of Hamas, below the supervision of the Board of Peace.
Israeli officers warn that the fear group is exploiting the method to stop renewed Israeli army motion, with prime officers reportedly calling Hamas’s settlement to the deal a “strategic ambush” of Israel.
Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Saudis slam Israel’s refusal
Amid Israel’s refusal to maneuver ahead with the deal, a number of prime Muslim nations on Sunday referred to as on the US to implement Israel’s compliance.
In a joint assertion, the nations together with Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia stated Israel the rejection threatens Trump’s intensified efforts to finish conflict in Gaza.
“Israel bears accountability for disrupting peace efforts in Gaza and the Palestinian territories,” the assertion learn. “These positions quantity to a direct repudiation of the Complete Plan, jeopardize its implementation, and essentially undermine the collective efforts undertaken to realize a simply and lasting peace.”
Israel’s rejection of the plan “instantly threatens to derail the in depth efforts exerted by US President Trump to deliver an finish to the conflict in Gaza and set up the circumstances for lasting peace,” it stated.
The nations referred to as for “sustained and lively US engagement to make sure and implement Israel’s full compliance with the commitments and preparations envisaged below the Complete Plan and its Highway Map, and to stop additional obstruction of their implementation.”
Israel due to this fact bears “direct and full accountability for any penalties ensuing from its continued rejection, obstruction, delay or non-compliance, together with any ensuing deterioration of the state of affairs on the bottom and disruption of ending the conflict in Gaza.”
“The ministers additional name upon the Board of Peace, with the lively help and engagement of america, to take instant and concrete measures inside its mandate to uphold the integrity of the Complete Plan and forestall any celebration from obstructing its implementation,” the assertion added.
Instances of Israel workers contributed to this report
