CAIRO — US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner met Hamas’s new leader in Egypt yesterday sources with knowledge of the talks told AFP, in a push to revive a Gaza peace plan rejected by Israel.
Two weeks after Hamas endorsed the latest stage of Trump’s Gaza plan by saying it would hand over weapons to a new governing committee, Kushner pressed for verifiable disarmament, a key demand of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kushner called for “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 talks.
Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya took part in the discussions in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of El-Alamein, making his first trip since assuming leadership of the group in July.
Soon after he took the helm, Hamas backed the disarmament roadmap, a move that some observers believe was tactical in the knowledge that Israel would say no.
In the talks with Kushner, Hamas again voiced its commitment to the plan, another source with knowledge of the talks 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”.
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 former British prime minister Tony Blair. Qatar and Turkey, key mediators alongside Egypt, also joined.
The United States for years refused contact with Hamas, which it classifies as a terrorist organisation and which led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
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.
Kushner on Monday will see Netanyahu, a longtime hawk who faces a tough re-election fight in October.
