Berliner Tageszeitung - Netanyahu, Kushner discuss US general for Hamas disarmament: Israeli official

Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, flew to the region after Netanyahu, facing a tough re-election fight, publicly rejected the latest part of a US plan aimed at ending the devastating Gaza war.

Kushner, who has long family ties to Netanyahu, met with him in Jerusalem a day after holding rare direct talks in Egypt with Hamas, which has publicly committed itself to the plan and to disarmament, winning praise from Trump but prompting deep scepticism in Israel.

The two sides "agreed that no redeployment or reconstruction would take place in the Gaza Strip before Hamas is disarmed throughout Gaza", a senior Israeli official told AFP.

"It was also agreed that the first step toward the demilitarisation of the Strip would be to require Hamas to hand over its weapons for decommissioning under the supervision of an American general," the official said.

Kushner was joined in the talks by other members of Trump's so-called Board of Peace on Gaza, including former British prime minister Tony Blair.

The group did not immediately comment on the meeting.

The Trump administration has already given a role to the US military and friendly foreign forces in supervising an October ceasefire in Gaza that has reduced, but not ended, Israeli strikes in the ravaged Palestinian territory.

The call for a US general's involvement came after Netanyahu publicly rejected an earlier text by the Board of Peace in which it said Hamas would hand over its weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee.

Kushner in the talks in Egypt had demanded that Hamas verify it is giving up its weapons and that the group -- whose unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack against Israel launched the Gaza war -- renounce any future role in governing the Palestinian territory, the sources said.

A Hamas official said the group, represented by its new leader Khalil al-Hayya, told Kushner it was committed to the Gaza plan and wanted pressure on Netanyahu.

- Hardline rhetoric -

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister whose job is on the line in October 27 elections, has increasingly been willing to defy Trump, whose support he once highlighted in his campaign.

The prime minister has also made clear his unhappiness with Trump's decision to halt the US-Israeli war on Iran launched in late February and instead pursue a settlement with Tehran's clerical leaders.

After initially voicing muted criticism of the Gaza plan, Netanyahu last week told his cabinet that he rejected it.

The stance came even though Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace high representative for Gaza, had assured him that Israel would not need to withdraw until a full disarmament by Hamas, backtracking on the Board's earlier calls for Israel to start a phased withdrawal.

In an interview, Itamar Ben Gvir, the far-right national security minister in Netanyahu's cabinet, called for mass killings in Gaza.

"I think targeted eliminations should be carried out in Gaza every night. Take out 30 or 40," Ben Gvir said on a podcast with a former Gaza hostage.

"Not only those who endanger you right now. These are people who shouldn't be alive," he said. "I'm paying them a compliment by calling them humans."

On Sunday, eight Muslim-majority countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates -- whose relationship with Israel is considered by Netanyahu to be a key achievement -- condemned Israel's rejection of the Gaza plan in a joint statement.

Israel has resumed airstrikes in Gaza after a short lull following Trump's promotion of the peace plan.

Israeli operations have killed at least 1,265 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, according to figures by Gaza's health ministry, which is under Hamas. Its figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during Gaza operations over the same period.

C. Fournier--BTZ