Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump and adviser in his first administration, held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon.
A picture distributed by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office showed that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer joined for the Israeli side, while Kushner was accompanied by Aryeh Lightstone, a senior adviser to Trump’s special Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Kushner touched down in Tel Aviv on Sunday night for unannounced meeting to discuss the implementation of Trump’s 20-point peace agreement for the Gaza Strip, according to a Reuters report.
On Sunday, Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster had reported that Kushner was scheduled to visit the Jewish state alongside Witkoff.
Judges in Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial accepted his request to cancel the premier’s testimony on Monday due to “urgent diplomatic meetings.”
Jerusalem believes that Hamas is deliberately slow-walking the return of the remaining deceased hostages to avoid its disarmament, which is set to take place in the second phase of Trump’s ceasefire deal with a deployment of an international force in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, the terror group is buying time to reassert control over territory from which the IDF has withdrawn so it will have greater bargaining power in future talks regarding Gaza’s reconstruction, Israel has said.
