US peace envoy Jared Kushner met with a Hamas delegation in Egypt on August 16, 2026, alongside international mediators to press for the implementation of the second phase of Washington’s Gaza peace plan, amid ongoing regional opposition and stalled negotiations over militant disarmament.
Diplomatic Push in Egypt and Jerusalem
The diplomatic push brought together key international figures in an intensive round of talks. Jared Kushner, serving as the United States special envoy for peace missions and son-in-law and advisor to the US president, Donald Trump, met in Egypt with a delegation from Hamas, Egyptian mediators, and the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, in an attempt to accelerate the application of the second phase of the US peace plan for Gaza.
Previously, Kushner had met with mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, and also with Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza of the “Peace Board” launched by Trump and created for the implementation of the agreement, the Egyptian government reported. With them, he analyzed the measures necessary to accelerate the implementation of the second phase of the plan, according to a statement from the Egypt Press Center. On this same day, Kushner also met with the president of Egypt, Abdelfatah al Sisi.
The meetings took place during an intense day, where Kushner met with the Egyptian president, Abdelfatah al Sisi, who conveyed to him the need for all parties to fulfill their obligations derived from the agreement. For his part, the Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, stated that the meetings are part of the efforts. On Monday, the businessman and diplomat is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu to prevent Trump’s plan from ending up derailed.
The US envoy and son-in-law of Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, met this Monday in Jerusalem with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a day after holding an unusual meeting with Hamas in Cairo, in an attempt to boost the US president’s peace plan for Gaza. Kushner was accompanied in the meeting with Netanyahu by Nickolay Mladenov, envoy of Trump’s Peace Council for Gaza. Mladenov, a former United Nations official with close ties to the United Arab Emirates, a country with great influence in the Middle East, already helped negotiate last month’s disarmament agreement and is widely considered one of the main figures tasked with promoting Trump’s original 20-point plan to end the war, a plan that Israel and Hamas agreed to last year.
The 15-Point Roadmap and Disarmament Stalls
However, so far the plan is stalled, while Israel continues to carry out attacks against Gaza, despite having agreed to a ceasefire as part of Trump’s plan. Last month, Hamas accepted a new 15-point roadmap backed by the United States, aimed at advancing the application of Trump’s peace plan. However, Netanyahu publicly rejected that roadmap, which would contemplate Hamas handing over its weapons in exchange for Israel withdrawing from Gaza.
For his part, Trump had indicated that the agreement would be carried out in phases, with the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as disarmament progressed, while an International Stabilization Force
would collaborate with a new Palestinian police force to guarantee the security of the territory.
According to sources familiar with the content of the conversation, in the meeting the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Jalil al Haya, reaffirmed his organization’s commitment to complete Trump’s 15-point plan to end the suffering of the population and begin the reconstruction of the Strip. Kushner, meanwhile, insisted on a total disarmament of Hamas and that it have no role whatsoever in the future government of Gaza.
For Kushner, the mission involves achieving a complete disarmament of Hamas in order to establish a lasting peace between both parties. The Peace Board wants Hamas to begin dismantling its weapons and military infrastructure, allow the deployment of the International Stabilization Force, and facilitate the recovery and reconstruction of Gaza without theft or intimidation against the Palestinians participating in these tasks, a source cited by Axios indicated after the meeting.
The same source stated that there could be no ambiguity and that Hamas must relinquish governing authority and all military weapons and infrastructure, adding that Gaza could never again be a source of terror for Israel.
Regional Condemnation and Ongoing Diplomacy
The foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have issued a joint statement in which they condemn Israel’s rejection of a 15-point document presented by the Peace Board of the US president, Donald Trump. According to the Arab countries, the rejection confirms that Israel is responsible for hindering the efforts to achieve peace.
The statement reported by Al Jazeera noted that these positions amounted to a direct rejection of the Comprehensive Plan, endangered its implementation, and fundamentally undermined the collective efforts undertaken to achieve a just and lasting peace, adding that this rejection confirmed Israel was now responsible for hindering efforts to achieve peace in Gaza and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
According to the Qatari medium, the statement indicates that the roadmap has been “accepted” by the Palestinian factions, is the result of extensive efforts
by the mediators, and constitutes a vital milestone for the dismantling of arms, simultaneously with the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the deployment of the International Stabilization Force, the transfer of administrative authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
