Kushner in Israel, trying to get Gaza peace plan back on track

Kushner’s Four-Hour Push in Jerusalem: Gaza’s Peace Roadmap Faces Its Hardest Test Yet

Provpnadvice.com – Special envoy Jared Kushner spent four hours at the Israeli prime minister’s office on Monday, pressing Benjamin Netanyahu to clear the path toward the next phase of President Trump’s Gaza peace plan. The marathon session came days after Kushner held a separate two-hour sit-down in Cairo with Hamas’s newly installed chief, Khalil al-Hayya, flanked by mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey. The twin meetings underscore how tightly the administration is threading a needle: keeping both sides at the table while neither appears to concede ground to the other.

The Cairo Backdrop

In Cairo, Kushner urged Hamas to take concrete steps toward disarmament, including handing governing authority to the Palestinian technocratic government and ensuring the militant group plays no role in Gaza’s future administration. At the same time, he acknowledged al-Hayya’s stated commitment to the plan and the group’s ongoing efforts to recover the remains of all slain Israelis. Hamas leaders, in turn, expressed gratitude to Washington for its work improving the humanitarian situation inside the Strip.

The friction point remains the sequencing question. When the 15-point roadmap was unveiled late last month, Hamas accepted it in principle but insisted that Israel halt its military operations and withdraw simultaneously with the handover of weapons. Netanyahu, speaking the previous week, rejected that formulation outright, declaring that Israel will not pull its forces out before Hamas surrenders its arsenal. Kushner’s message to the prime minister, relayed through aides, was blunt: do not manufacture obstacles to the plan’s next stage.

Working Groups and the Disarmament Clock

Netanyahu’s office issued a statement after the Monday session describing the talks as “deep and constructive” and announcing the creation of two working groups. One will focus on the disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza; the other on sanitation, clean water, and broader public-health challenges facing the Strip. The prime minister’s office added that the disarmament track “should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction happens in Gaza,” a sequencing choice that signals Israel’s insistence on security guarantees before rebuilding begins.

Accompanying Kushner in Jerusalem was Nickolay Mladenov, the senior representative of the Board of Peace, the body Trump established specifically to administer the Gaza peace plan. The Board’s involvement at the highest level of Israeli government marks a shift from back-channel diplomacy toward formal institutional engagement.

A Catastrophe Behind the Diplomacy

The negotiations unfold against a backdrop of staggering human suffering. Gaza’s population of nearly two million people endures what observers describe as a catastrophic humanitarian crisis despite the ceasefire that took hold in November. UNRWA, the United Nations agency charged with assisting Palestinian refugees, reports sheltering roughly 65,000 internally displaced persons in its facilities, yet virtually the entire population lacks adequate shelter, sufficient drinking water, reliable food supplies, or accessible medical care.

Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tallies, has recorded more than 70,000 Palestinian deaths and over 174,000 injuries across the nearly three-year war. Since the ceasefire took effect, an additional 1,200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,300 wounded, a reminder that the guns have not fully fallen silent.

Political Gravity in Jerusalem

The Trump administration confronts a steep political landscape in trying to lock Netanyahu into a meaningful commitment. Israeli elections, expected to be fiercely contested, are set for late October, and the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack looms just weeks earlier. On that date, Hamas killed an estimated 1,200 people in southern Israel and seized 251 hostages. Over the subsequent two-year period, roughly 160 were returned through negotiations, prisoner exchanges, and rescue operations. Trump’s October ceasefire deal secured the release of the remaining 20 living hostages and the return of the deceased hostages’ bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

The emotional and political weight of that anniversary makes any perceived concession by Israel politically costly. Tal Schneider, an Israeli journalist who covers diplomacy and politics, captured the mood in remarks delivered at a Jerusalem Press Club panel on Monday:

“October 7 is the day for the Israelis to make promises that they will never see anything like that again, and the trauma is very much strong and alive.”

He added:

“There’s a very, very strong sentiment in all walks of Israeli society not to surrender anything to the terrorists. It’s so strong that Netanyahu can hardly do anything at the moment.”

What Comes Next

The two working groups now announced will serve as the operational skeleton of the plan’s second phase. Their success or failure will hinge on whether both sides accept a sequencing that satisfies Israeli security demands while delivering tangible improvements in Gaza’s daily life. For a population already enduring three years of war, the gap between diplomatic language and a working water pump or a functioning hospital ward is where the peace plan will ultimately be judged. Kushner’s presence in Jerusalem signals that Washington intends to stay engaged through that gap, even as the political clocks in both Tel Aviv and Gaza tick toward deadlines that leave little room for delay.