US holds talks with Hamas and Israel in bid to salvage Gaza peace plan

Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner has wrapped up two days of meetings with Israeli and Hamas leaders to break a stalemate over the US president’s Gaza plan, but there have been no signs of an imminent breakthrough as both sides dig in.

The US president last month announced that Hamas had agreed to lay down its arms in phases, under a 15-point road map put forward by his so-called Board of Peace to advance the president’s plan, as Israel’s military withdraws from Gaza.

Kushner met Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel a day after meeting Hamas’s political leader in Egypt in a bid to revive the plan, which has stalled as Israel has carried out air strikes and seized more territory in Gaza despite an October ceasefire, while Hamas has refused to give up its weapons.

An Israeli official indicated that there was no breakthrough in the meeting, saying Netanyahu had made it clear the military would not withdraw from a demarcation line set out in an October ceasefire and would continue to carry out operations in Gaza as it saw necessary, including targeting those who took part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the war. They remarked that Netanyahu and Kushner agreed in the meeting that the reconstruction of Gaza would not begin until Hamas was fully disarmed, including of light weapons.