Kushner: Gaza demilitarization could begin within 30 days

U.S. special envoy Jared Kushner said on Monday that progress toward Gaza’s demilitarization could begin within 30 days, following a nearly four-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kushner told Fox News that Washington would not support rebuilding Gaza before demilitarization, adding that the administration had addressed Israeli concerns about the Board of Peace roadmap and clarified that Israel’s right to act against imminent threats would not be restricted.

“We could be seeing progress in as little 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,” Kushner said, adding that progress would require cooperation from both sides.

Netanyahu and representatives of the Board of Peace, the U.S.-backed transitional international body overseeing postwar Gaza and chaired by U.S. President Donald Trump, held “deep and constructive” discussions on Monday, according to the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

The sides agreed to establish two working groups, including one focused on the disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza. It was also agreed that the process should be completed promptly before any reconstruction begins in the Strip, according to the PMO statement.

A second working group will address sanitation, clean water and other public-health issues affecting Gaza’s population and Israel.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also met on Monday with Kushner and Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza, to discuss the next steps in implementing the roadmap.

Following the meeting, Herzog said he was “impressed that Israel’s security interests are an important and central element” of the proposal. He also praised the Board of Peace’s efforts to promote a “brighter and more secure future” for Israelis, Palestinians and the broader region.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a member of the board’s executive committee, and Aryeh Lightstone, a senior adviser to the board, also attended.

The meetings came after a Hamas delegation began talks in Egypt on Sunday to probe alternative ways of advancing the 15-point roadmap, a Hamas official told AFP.

The source was quoted as saying that talks would cover “the latest developments in the negotiations and the efforts being made to compel Israel to abide by the agreement,” apparently referring to previous Hamas statements that it would start handing its arms to a technocratic Palestinian body only after the Israel Defense Forces withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

The delegation, led by Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya, started its meetings with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad in the city of El-Alamein, situated on the Mediterranean coast northwest of Cairo, the official said.

Leaders of the terrorist group also reportedly met with Kushner.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday praised Netanyahu for insisting on the “genuine dismantling and demilitarization” of Hamas and Gaza, but said defeating the terrorist group would require full Israeli control of the Strip, renewed Israeli settlement and the pursuit of Hamas terrorists worldwide.

Smotrich said that goal was incompatible with negotiations with Hamas leaders, “who should not be alive at all,” calling that the “root of the mistake” in the Trump-backed 15-point plan and saying Jerusalem must make its position clear to the U.S. administration.

On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said that there was no disagreement between Israel and the United States over disarming Hamas and ensure the terrorist group has no future in the Gaza Strip.

Huckabee, who attended meetings on Monday with Netanyahu, described the talks as “intense and thoughtful, but respectful.”

He rejected reports of a rift, saying some accounts of the discussions were “simply fake news” and “invented out of thin air.”