Trump envoy Kushner meets with Hamas to advance US president’s Gaza plan

JARED Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, met with Hamas leaders in Egypt on Sunday (Aug 16), two Hamas officials and another official briefed on the meetings said. The talks were part of a diplomatic push to advance Trump’s plan for the future of the Gaza Strip.

A US official confirmed that Kushner was in Egypt for talks on Gaza, without providing further details. All four officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail Kushner’s meetings.

Kushner’s visit to the Middle East comes as the US-backed plan to disarm Hamas has appeared to hit a dead end. In July, Trump announced that his Board of Peace had reached an agreement with Hamas that aimed to strip the Palestinian group of its weapons.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said he rejected the deal, appearing to put it on ice. After the meetings with Hamas on Sunday, Kushner was expected to travel to Israel to meet with Netanyahu to discuss the situation in Gaza.

Direct talks between the US government and Hamas, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organisation, were once rare. But the Trump administration broke that taboo, holding multiple rounds of negotiations with the group to win freedom for the hostages Hamas seized in Israel and to end the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

Although Kushner does not hold an official US government position, Trump has tapped him, alongside real estate developer Steve Witkoff, to lead diplomacy on matters as diverse as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war. NYTIMES