Trump adviser expected to meet Netanyahu before talks in Cairo as Washington works through Israeli concerns over Hamas disarmament and Gaza’s postwar transition
Raees Mayers I SCN
WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and Middle East envoy, is expected to travel to Israel and Egypt next week for high-level talks aimed at advancing the U.S.-backed Gaza peace plan as Washington seeks to resolve differences with Israel over its implementation.
Kushner is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials in Israel before traveling to Cairo for discussions involving regional mediators, according to people familiar with the plans.
The trip would place one of Trump’s closest advisers directly into negotiations at a sensitive stage for the Gaza initiative, which calls for Hamas to disarm, Israeli forces to withdraw in phases and civilian administration of the territory to pass to a Palestinian technocratic body.
Israel has raised objections over how those steps would be sequenced and has insisted that Hamas be fully disarmed before Israeli forces withdraw.
A source familiar with the discussions said Washington shares Israel’s objective of disarming Hamas but is working through concerns raised by the Israeli government.
Kushner’s planned meetings are expected to focus on narrowing those differences and determining how the next phase of the U.S.-led framework can proceed.
The diplomatic effort comes days after Netanyahu publicly rejected elements of Trump’s 15-point Gaza plan, exposing differences between Washington and Jerusalem over the terms required for an Israeli military withdrawal.
Trump’s proposal seeks to move Gaza beyond the ceasefire into a broader political and security arrangement, including the transfer of governance to a Palestinian technocratic administration and eventual reconstruction of the devastated territory.
Hamas has accepted elements of the U.S.-backed framework involving the transfer of weapons and governance, but disagreements remain over the conditions, timing and guarantees attached to implementation.
Kushner is expected to be joined in the regional discussions by Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza.
The delegation is also expected to hold talks in Cairo, where Egypt has played a central role alongside Qatar and Turkey in mediation over Gaza.
Those meetings could prove critical because the next phase depends not only on agreement between Washington and Israel but also on arrangements acceptable to regional mediators and Palestinian parties.
Kushner has become one of Trump’s principal negotiators on Middle East diplomacy, building on the role he played during the president’s first term in negotiating the Abraham Accords.
His return to the region signals that the White House is seeking direct political engagement at a point when disagreements over disarmament and withdrawal threaten to stall the Gaza framework.
For Washington, the immediate objective is no longer simply maintaining the ceasefire.
It is securing agreement on what comes next: how Hamas is disarmed, when Israeli forces withdraw and who governs Gaza as the territory moves toward reconstruction.