US President Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner will travel to Israel next week as Washington seeks to resolve differences over a Gaza peace plan rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Kushner will be accompanied by Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza of Trump’s Board of Peace, which has been tasked with helping implement the agreement. The two are also expected to visit Egypt, a key mediator in the Gaza negotiations.
Their trip comes after Netanyahu rejected a 15-point proposal announced by Mladenov. Under the plan, Hamas had agreed to surrender its weapons to a new Palestinian governing committee in Gaza.
A Board of Peace official said Kushner and Mladenov would hold “constructive conversations” with Israeli officials to discuss the next steps under Trump’s broader peace plan.
“The United States and Israel agree on the end state, which is a demilitarised Hamas,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official added that the US delegation would listen to Israel’s concerns while looking for ways to speed up implementation of the agreement.
The latest phase of the plan, accepted by Hamas in late July, initially called for a phased Israeli withdrawal from large parts of Gaza.
Mladenov later clarified that Israel would not be required to withdraw its forces until Hamas had been fully disarmed.
Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected any Israeli withdrawal before Hamas gives up its weapons. He has also expressed doubts that the group would agree to verifiable disarmament.
Hamas, however, says it is complying with the agreement and has urged Washington and other mediators to put pressure on Netanyahu.
“We continue to await pressure from the mediators and the US side on Netanyahu and his government to compel him to abide by the roadmap,” Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP.
Naim also called on the United States to prevent the ceasefire process from being derailed for political or electoral reasons, pointing to Israel’s October 27 election, in which polls suggest Netanyahu faces a close contest.
The diplomatic push comes as the Gaza ceasefire faces renewed strain. Israeli airstrikes killed Palestinians on Wednesday and Thursday, ending a lull of more than a week after Trump announced the latest stage of the agreement and described it as a “major milestone.”
For Palestinians displaced by the war, uncertainty over the stalled plan has added to fears that the conflict could resume.
“What frightens me most is for the agreement to remain suspended, leaving us neither at peace nor completely out of the war,” said Zahraa Al-Khatib, who was displaced from northern Gaza to Khan Yunis.
Nearly the entire population of Gaza has been displaced since Israel launched its military campaign following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed more people than any previous attack on the country.
The Trump administration helped broker the October 2025 ceasefire, but Israeli military operations since then have killed 1,259 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. The United Nations considers the ministry’s casualty figures broadly reliable.
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