Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, met on Sunday with the leadership of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Egypt, among other engagements.

Hamas announced in late July that it accepts the US roadmap, which is meant to pave the way for the “second phase” of Trump’s plan. That phase envisages the disarmament of the group in exchange for a gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops, who control more than half of the Gaza Strip.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally rejected the roadmap and demanded “genuine” disarmament of Hamas before any troop withdrawal takes place.

According to sources at the French news agency AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, Kushner pressed Hamas leaders during the Egypt meeting to disarm and called for “verifiable” measures to be put in place.

He also stressed that Gaza can never again become a “source” of terrorist action against Israel, one of the sources said.

Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, claimed responsibility for the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war in the enclave.

Kushner also insisted that Hamas can play no future role in governing Gaza, the sources added.

Timeline

Hamas announced in July that it was dissolving its government in the enclave and intends to hand its responsibilities to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a body of Palestinian technocrats created by the Board of Peace, the international group set up by Trump to oversee his Gaza plan. The NCAG is expected to manage the day-to-day affairs of the Gaza Strip during a transitional period.

After the meeting with Kushner, Hamas said in a statement that it had called on “the mediators and the Board of Peace to shoulder their responsibilities and force the occupation [Israel] to approve” Washington’s roadmap and to “begin setting a timeline for its implementation”.

According to Al Qahera News, a television network seen as closely linked to the Egyptian state apparatus, Kushner had earlier met representatives of the three mediating states, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, alongside Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza.

He also met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, while Hamas political bureau chief Khalil al-Hayya met separately with Hassan Rashad, head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service.

For years, the US refused any contact with Hamas, which it designates a “terrorist” organisation. However, in its effort to end the war, the Trump administration has appeared more open to direct engagement.

The Board of Peace announced on Friday that Kushner would visit Egypt and Israel in the coming days alongside Mladenov.

“We will hear the concerns that have been raised,” a source at the body said.

In a joint statement, eight Muslim-majority states, including Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, condemned Israel’s rejection of the US roadmap, saying it undermines “the collective efforts to secure a just and lasting peace”.

Deaths and injuries in Gaza

Hamas and Israel accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire declared in October 2025 in the Palestinian enclave, which has suffered enormous destruction over two years of war.

On the ground, several people were injured on Sunday in Israeli strikes on a house near Nuseirat, in central Gaza, according to Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for the civil defence agency, an emergency service under the Hamas-run administration.

There were also injuries after Israeli fire hit tents housing displaced people near Khan Younis, in the southern part of the enclave, where the body of a child killed on Saturday was also found, Bassal said.

The Israeli military said it had struck “two terrorists” from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Hamas-allied faction, in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.

According to the health ministry of the Hamas-run government in Gaza, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN, at least 1,262 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025.

Over the same period, according to official figures, Israeli forces have suffered six losses in Gaza, five soldiers and one civilian contractor.