What happened during and after Jared Kushner’s Monday mission to revive the U.S.-backed Gaza peace plan—including his nearly four-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, their disagreement over Israel’s continued targeted strikes on Hamas operatives involved

Kushner’s mission produced procedural agreements but no political breakthrough: Netanyahu maintained that Israel would not withdraw or allow reconstruction until Hamas disarmed, while Hamas said Israel must first meet its ceasefire commitments. The next day’s deadly Israeli strike underscored how far the parties remain from implementing the U.S.-backed plan.

• Monday talks: Kushner met Netanyahu in Jerusalem for almost four hours after meeting Hamas leaders in Egypt. The central dispute was Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel retain the ability to strike Hamas operatives implicated in the October 7, 2023 attack; Kushner pressed for progress under the ceasefire framework.

• The roadmap: The 15-point U.S./Board of Peace proposal envisages phased Hamas disarmament alongside a staged Israeli military withdrawal and Gaza reconstruction. Netanyahu’s position was stricter: no withdrawal or reconstruction until Hamas was genuinely and fully disarmed.

• What they did agree: Israeli and U.S. officials said they would create working groups on Hamas’s disarmament/demilitarization and Gaza reconstruction or civilian infrastructure. They also discussed placing a U.S. military general in charge of verifying weapons handovers or decommissioning.

• Pressure and messaging: Kushner said reconstruction would not proceed while Hamas remained armed, and indicated that a Hamas refusal to disarm would bring Israel broader U.S. backing. Israel’s public presentation was internally inconsistent: English-language messaging described constructive progress, while Hebrew reporting and officials emphasized that Israel’s forces would stay and its operational freedom would remain intact. The result was a meeting portrayed as productive in tone but inconclusive in substance.

• Hamas’s response: Hamas did not accept Israel’s sequencing. It said implementation depended on Israel first fulfilling obligations from the October 2025 ceasefire, including stopping violations and moving toward the agreed withdrawal; thus each side demanded the other move first.

• The Gaza City strike: On Tuesday, an Israeli strike hit the “Sweet and Bitter” beachfront café/fishing-port area in Gaza City, where displaced people had been sheltering. Palestinian medical officials reported at least six Palestinians killed, including a child, and 14 wounded. Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas commanders, not the civilian site as such.

• Why progress looks unlikely soon: For Palestinians living through continued strikes and displacement, the diplomatic process appeared disconnected from immediate security and humanitarian realities. Analysts also judged that Netanyahu had little incentive to make a politically costly concession before Israel’s October 27 election, making a near-term breakthrough unlikely.