TEL AVIV: US President Donald Trump's envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner will visit Israel next week in hopes of bridging gaps on a Gaza plan rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, officials said. Kushner and Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza of Trump's so-called Board of Peace, tasked with implementing the deal, will visit both Israel and key mediator Egypt.
The trip comes after Netanyahu publicly rejected a 15-point plan announced by Mladenov in which Hamas agreed to hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing committee in Gaza. A Board of Peace official said Kushner and Mladenov hoped for "constructive conversations" on advancing Trump's overall peace plan, which began with the October 2025 declaration of a ceasefire that has reduced but not ended Israeli strikes in Gaza.
The latest part of the Gaza plan, to which Hamas agreed in late July, would start a phased Israeli withdrawal from much of the Strip, according to an initial version released by the Board of Peace. Israel carried out deadly air strikes in Gaza on Wednesday and Thursday, breaking a lull of over a week following Trump's announcement of the latest stage of the deal. — AFP
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