U.S. envoy Jared Kushner returned to the Middle East to push forward President Donald Trump’s 15-point Gaza roadmap, but the trip exposed rather than resolved a rift with Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly rejected the plan before Kushner’s visit, in what AP described as a rare public show of defiance against the Trump administration. Kushner met Hamas political leader Khalil al-Hayya for more than two hours in Cairo on August 16, alongside mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, before traveling to Jerusalem the next day for an extended meeting with Netanyahu, according to Reuters.
Netanyahu has vowed there will be no Israeli military withdrawal until Hamas is “genuinely” disarmed, according to CBS News. Hamas, which says it has already agreed to the roadmap, wants Israeli forces to first pull back to the so-called “yellow line,” a boundary that was never precisely defined. Netanyahu previously said Israeli forces controlled about 60% of Gaza and that the next step would be to expand that to 70%, according to AP.
Kushner told Fox News after the Jerusalem meeting that progress on Gaza’s demilitarization could begin within 30 days, according to Israel National News. He said Hamas had used the right words in Cairo but would be judged on actions, warning that if the group does not follow through, Israel would have “a lot more support from the US and others to go and finish the job in the appropriate way.” Under the roadmap as previously outlined, Hamas weapons would pass out of militant control while a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee takes over civil administration under the proposed international oversight mechanism, according to earlier Al Jazeera reporting on the roadmap’s structure; that account predates the current round of talks and describes the plan’s design rather than its present implementation status.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement condemning Israel’s rejection of the roadmap, saying “Israel now bears responsibility for obstructing” further progress, according to AP. Kushner’s mission therefore faces a sequencing dispute that has hardened rather than eased: Hamas wants withdrawal before full disarmament, Israel wants disarmament before any withdrawal, and Washington has so far been unable to bridge the dispute.
