According to a senior Israeli official, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. envoy Jared Kushner that Israel would not withdraw its troops from Gaza or allow reconstruction to begin until Hamas was fully disarmed, UNN reports, citing CNN.
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Kushner and Netanyahu also agreed that an American general would oversee Hamas’s disarmament, which would be the first step in demilitarizing the devastated enclave.
Netanyahu rejected Trump's peace plan for Gaza and set his own conditions05.08.26, 02:55
Hamas is refusing to disarm unless this is coordinated with an end to the nearly daily Israeli attacks on Gaza and the beginning of the withdrawal of Israeli troops, which currently occupy more than half of the territory.
The meeting was also attended by Nikolay Mladenov, director of the organization "Board of Peace," and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. According to an official statement from Netanyahu’s office, the group agreed to establish working groups on disarmament, as well as sanitation, clean water, and public health.
According to another Israeli source, Netanyahu said that moving forward with the Trump administration’s latest 15-point plan for a ceasefire in Gaza (which Israel rejected) would be "problematic" because of the upcoming elections in Israel.
Kushner meets Netanyahu after talks with Hamas17.08.26, 12:51
The source also told CNN that Netanyahu insisted Israel would not change its policy of continuing targeted killings of Hamas commanders.