WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy for peace, spent four hours pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to soften his resistance to a 15-point proposal from the Trump-chaired Board of Peace, which would require Hamas to disarm in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
“I mean, [Hamas] said all the right things, but, obviously, it’s very, very hard to trust a terrorist organization that committed these terrible atrocities. But we had a very cordial meeting. And they said all the right things,” Kushner told Fox News’ Trey Yingst after meeting Sunday with Hamas leaders and then sitting down with Netanyahu.
“And so we’re going to give them a chance to perform, but it’s going to have to be based on actions and steps, and I hope it will be true.”
Kushner said Israel would retain the right to “finish the job” in Gaza if Hamas fails to follow through on its promise to store its weapons and hand authority in the enclave to a third party, a step intended to clear the way for rebuilding the territory where roughly 2 million people live.
Under the US-backed framework, day-to-day governance of the devastated territory would shift to a technocratic civilian administration that was announced last year.
Netanyahu has resisted the proposal over concerns it could allow Hamas to regain strength after the terror group was pushed into urban areas during two years of fighting that began with the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of about 1,200 people across southern Israel.
Speaking to Yingst, Kushner described his conversation with Netanyahu as “a very, very good meeting.”
“I think there were some valid concerns that they raised that we were able to address. And we were able to go through some of the misunderstandings and misinformation that’s been out about it,” Kushner said of the peace plan.
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“We’re very committed to the fact that we have a plan to rebuild Gaza, but we will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until the demilitarization occurs.”
A Board of Peace official confirmed to The Post in a statement Monday that Netanyahu and Kushner “agreed that there will be no IDF redeployment from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed and all of Gaza is demilitarized – every weapon, light and heavy, and every tunnel. Every weapon collected will be fully decommissioned so it cannot be used again. Israel retains its full right of self-defense: if Hamas resorts to terror, violence, or attempts to rearm, Israel will retain the right to act accordingly.”
“To ensure close collaboration, the parties agreed to immediately establish two joint working groups,” the official added. “One on security and the demilitarization of Gaza, which both Israel and the Board of Peace are determined shall be complete and prompt; and a second on basic needs, sanitation, clean water, and other public health issues for the people of Gaza.”
Kushner has a long relationship with Netanyahu, having brokered the 2020 Abraham Accords through which Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates established diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
The envoy told Yingst that the Board of Pace was “not going to restrict Israel’s right to defend itself if there are any imminent threats. And so we had to clarify what that means.
“We could be seeing progress in as little as 30 days, hopefully on starting to take some of the weapons out and hopefully filling in some of the tunnels as well in the next 60 to 90 days,” he added, referring to the network of subterranean passages where Hamas kept weapons, supplies and dozens of hostages following the Oct. 7 attacks.
“So, progress could come quite soon, but we do need cooperation from both sides. And we’re going to hopefully get through it,” Kushner went on.
“For Israel, we think this is a win-win situation, because if Hamas actually gives over the weapons and the tunnels willingly over the next 60 to 90 days, that obviously would be the elimination of a huge security threat for Israel, almost an unthinkable achievement.
“And if they don’t follow through now on their commitment, everyone will see that they’re not genuine about peace, and then Israel will have a lot more support from the US and others to go and finish the job in the appropriate way.”
