Kushner to visit Israel and Egypt after Netanyahu rejects Gaza peace plan

Jared Kushner is due to travel to Israel and Egypt next week to support a US-backed Board of Peace plan aimed at a permanent end to the war in Gaza. The visit comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected key terms of a 15-point proposal linked to the wider ceasefire framework. A Board of Peace official confirmed the trip and said the delegation will seek to address Israeli objections and discuss next steps.

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According to the official, Kushner will be accompanied by the board's director general, Nickolay Mladenov, and executive committee member Tony Blair. The official said the group will meet Israeli officials and then travel to Cairo to speak with Egyptian and other mediators. The stated aim is to "hear the concerns that have been raised and talk about next steps", while also trying to accelerate progress on the plan.

The main point of dispute is the proposal's sequence for Hamas disarmament and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu has opposed a provision that would see Hamas gradually hand over its weapons to a Palestinian third party while Israeli troops withdraw concurrently. Hamas has said it agreed to a preliminary version of the deal and remains committed after Israel's rejection, according to the supporting material.

The Board of Peace was launched as part of a broader Gaza ceasefire agreement reached in late 2025 between Israel and Hamas. Under the 20-point framework described in the source material, fighting was meant to stop to allow Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups to decommission their weapons, followed by an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The agreement also envisages Hamas transferring power to a technocratic Palestinian government, the deployment of an International Stabilisation Force, and a major reconstruction effort.

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The visit matters because it places senior political figures and mediators back at the centre of a process that remains unresolved despite a formal framework. The plan's supporters say the end state is a demilitarised Hamas, but the implementation details remain contested. That leaves the talks focused not only on security arrangements, but also on who governs Gaza after the fighting and how any transition would be enforced.

The source says Hamas's approval of the preliminary disarmament agreement has been viewed as a major breakthrough, even though the practical steps have not been defined. It also notes that there have been near-daily Israeli violations, although no further detail is provided in the supplied material. What remains unclear is whether the upcoming meetings in Israel and Cairo can narrow the gap over sequencing, verification and withdrawal, and whether the parties can turn the broad framework into an agreed roadmap.

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