Kushner meets Hamas leaders in Egypt to push Trump’s Gaza plan
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x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info Displaced Palestinians gather along on the beachfront in Gaza City [File: Eyad Baba/AFP] By Al Jazeera Staff , AFP and Reuters Published On 16 Aug 2026 16 Aug 2026 Hamas leaders have met in Egypt with US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East envoy, Jared Kushner, who is seeking to push a peace plan for Gaza that Israel has rejected.
A Palestinian source told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Hamas’s leadership briefed Kushner on Israel’s ceasefire violations in Gaza. The source also stated that Kushner said the US rejects any plans to displace Gaza’s residents.
Another official familiar with the matter told Al Jazeera that Hamas and Kushner met in the town of Alamein “with the objective of translating the roadmap’s obligations into concrete, verifiable steps”.
“These are actions that maintain the ceasefire; begin to transfer all governing responsibilities to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza; ensure that Hamas has no role in Gaza’s future administration,” the source, who is neither a member of the Board of Peace nor a US official, said.
“There can be no ambiguity: Hamas must relinquish governing authority and all weapons and military infrastructure. And Gaza can never again be a source of terror for Israel,” the source added.
Hamas political leader Khalil al-Hayya attended the talks. Also present were Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, Qatari diplomat Ali Al Thawadi and a senior Turkish official, US outlet Axios reported.
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is also a member of the board, joined Kushner in the meeting. Kushner is due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Kushner’s visits to Israel and Egypt are an effort to narrow differences over Trump’s latest roadmap for Gaza, which Netanyahu said last week was “ unacceptable ” for Israel.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Hamas said that during a meeting with “delegations from the mediators and guarantors of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza”, it emphasised its “acceptance” of the roadmap for the second phase of President Trump’s plan.
“Hamas and the resistance fully adhered to the first phase of the ceasefire agreement”, it said, adding that Israel “failed to implement this phase, escalating its military operations on the ground and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe and has explicitly rejected the roadmap”.
Hamas said “it called upon the mediating parties and the Board of Peace to fulfil their responsibilities and compel the [Israeli] occupation to implement all its obligations in the first phase, end all violations, halt the killings and incursions, agree to the roadmap for the second phase of President Trump’s plan and begin developing a timetable for its implementation”.
The US has, for years, refused contact with Hamas, which it classifies as a “terrorist organisation”. But the Trump administration has increasingly been comfortable with direct contact in hopes of ending the conflict.
Earlier, al-Hayya met with Rashad, Reuters reported, while Kushner had earlier met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, said el-Sisi’s office.
According to the Egyptian Presidency, the talks also covered Egypt-US relations. El-Sisi highlighted the strategic partnership between the two countries and praised their ongoing cooperation across shared interests. Kushner, in turn, commended the close coordination with Egypt and expressed appreciation for El-Sisi’s role in advancing regional peace and stability.
On Sunday, the foreign ministers of eight nations – Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia – also condemned Israel’s rejection of the UN-backed roadmap for Gaza, branding it a “direct assault” on US-led peace efforts and Palestinian statehood.
Warning that Israel now bears full responsibility for derailing the truce plan, they urged Washington to step in and enforce compliance, while insisting that only a two-state solution on 1967 borders can bring lasting stability and calling on the Board of Peace to move swiftly against any further obstruction.
Separately, a senior Israeli official said that Kushner and Mladenov were scheduled to meet with Netanyahu on Monday.
The official said that Israel was concerned about Washington’s demand to end targeted assassinations of Hamas fighters in Gaza.
Trump’s peace plan calls for the immediate cessation of military operations in Gaza. It foresees Hamas disarming as Israeli troops withdraw from the enclave and Gaza is rebuilt under a new civilian Palestinian administration.
After scaling back its attacks in the besieged enclave earlier this month, Israel has resumed its air strikes in the past few days despite an October 2025 “ceasefire”.
At least five Palestinians were injured on Sunday after an Israeli strike hit a tent encampment in Khan Younis, medics said. A separate air strike hit an apartment in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, wounding several people, medics said.
Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to…
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