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Kushner, Netanyahu agree Hamas to disarm before IDF leaves Gaza

Marissa Newman and Fares Akram, Bloomberg News on

Published in News & Features

JERUSALEM — Jared Kushner assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Israeli army won’t be compelled to withdraw from Gaza until Hamas disarms, an official with knowledge of the talks said, a stance that will dim hopes for a Gaza peace deal anytime soon.

Kushner met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, a day after holding talks with a Hamas leader in Egypt. The U.S. and Israel agreed there would be no Israel Defense Forces redeployment from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed and all of Gaza is demilitarized, according to the Board of Peace official, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

Those conditions are likely to be rejected by Hamas, which has insisted that Israel withdraw from Gaza before it gives up its weapons. The disarmament would include a full decommissioning of both light and heavy weapons in Gaza, as well as Hamas tunnels, the official said.

That impasse underscores how challenging it will be for Kushner and Trump’s Board of Peace to finalize a Gaza deal and further dampens optimism for peace despite President Donald Trump’s announcement in late July that the board had reached an agreement for Hamas to disarm.

Trump had touted the deal in a social media post on Thursday evening, calling it a “monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.” The proposal called for disarming Hamas, placing Gaza under a new Palestinian government and withdrawing Israel’s military from the territory.

But Netanyahu rejected the road map laid out by the Board of Peace, an international consortium set up to implement Trump’s postwar vision for the Gaza Strip.

After the Kushner meeting, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister held “deep and constructive” discussions with the Board of Peace.

Israel and the Board of Peace are determined demilitarization “should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction happens in Gaza,” according to the statement. They also agreed to establish two working groups, one on disarmament and the other on sanitation and public health issues in Gaza, it said.

 

On Sunday, a Hamas politburo member said Kushner had confirmed the road map was final and wouldn’t be reopened for negotiations. The official spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity because Hamas wasn’t making the discussions public before the mediators.

“We call on President Trump to pressure the occupation government to compel it to abide by what was agreed upon in order to implement the second phase of Trump’s peace plan for Gaza,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said on Monday.

Hamas has said it would hand over heavy weapons to a proposed new Gaza administration, but only if Israel withdraws its forces and a Palestinian state is created. The Trump proposal refers to the new administration empowering individual Palestinians to keep their small arms.

Trump’s original plan envisaged Israeli troops leaving the Gaza Strip entirely as well as discussions of eventual statehood following the territory’s complete demilitarization and post-Hamas stabilization. The initial ceasefire phase of the Trump plan was reached last October, though there’s been little progress on long-term arrangements and the Israeli army has advanced beyond armistice lines.

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(With assistance from Dan Williams.)

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©2026 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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