A four-hour meeting between U.S. negotiator Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday produced new working groups on Gaza but no public Israeli commitment to the latest U.S.-backed ceasefire road map. The Associated Press reported that officials described the Jerusalem talks as constructive while acknowledging that the central dispute over the sequence of Hamas disarmament, Israeli withdrawal and reconstruction remains unresolved.
Israel and the U.S.-created Board of Peace agreed to establish one group on Gaza's demilitarization and another on public health and humanitarian conditions. Netanyahu's office said demilitarization should be rapid and completed before reconstruction. Axios reported that the sides also discussed a deconfliction mechanism, involving Egyptian mediators, to examine alleged violations and emerging threats before they trigger wider escalation.
Kushner arrived after a rare meeting on Sunday in Cairo with Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya and mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. Hamas has accepted the 15-point proposal, according to AP, but wants Israeli attacks to stop and troops to pull back to the so-called yellow line before implementation begins. Israel currently controls about 60 percent of Gaza and has not publicly promised a withdrawal.
Under the road map, Hamas would transfer weapons to a Palestinian technocratic administration, with an international stabilization force supporting verification and disposal. The plan links phased demilitarization to a phased Israeli withdrawal and provides a 14-day period to prepare an implementation timetable after every party approves it. The Palestinian committee intended to administer Gaza has not yet entered the territory.
The negotiations affect roughly two million Palestinians, the future government of Gaza and reconstruction after years of war. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the mediating states criticized Israel's earlier rejection of the road map and called for concrete action to prevent obstruction. Netanyahu, meanwhile, faces an October election and domestic pressure against rebuilding before disarmament.
Officials offered cautious optimism rather than a breakthrough. A spokesperson for Board of Peace director Nickolay Mladenov described Israeli adherence to the plan as work in progress, while a U.S. official told Axios that tangible steps could begin if Hamas hands over weapons. Reconstruction and an international deployment remain on hold until the parties settle the sequence, verification rules and definition of an imminent threat.
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