World News
Two Gaza working groups agreed after Kushner meets Israeli and Hamas leaders
By Staff Writer | 18 August 2026
The American envoy spent Sunday with Hamas leaders and mediators in Egypt and Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. One working group will handle disarmament, the other water and sanitation. The Israeli position on withdrawal has not moved.
Israel and the Board of Peace have agreed to set up two working groups on Gaza after a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday between the Israeli prime minister and Jared Kushner, the United States envoy who a day earlier had met Hamas leaders and mediators on the Egyptian coast. The meeting ran for several hours, and one Gulf account puts it at four.
We're very committed to the fact that we have a plan to rebuild Gaza, but we will not allow Gaza to be rebuilt until the demilitarisation occurs
Jared Kushner, United States envoy and member of the Board of Peace
Benjamin Netanyahu's office described the discussions as "deep and constructive" and said the first working group would deal with the disarmament and demilitarisation of Gaza, which both sides agreed should be prompt and finished before reconstruction begins. The second will deal with sanitation, clean water and other public health questions affecting people in Gaza and, his office said, in Israel.
Two readings of the same day
Gulf reporting on Monday divides on what the meetings produced, and the division is worth stating plainly. One account presents the working groups as the product of a meeting that moved matters forward. Another reports that no breakthrough was in sight and that both sides had dug in, citing an Israeli official who said the prime minister had made clear that the military would not withdraw from the demarcation line set out in the October ceasefire and would continue operations in Gaza as it sees fit.
Nothing in either account changes the sequencing dispute that has held the plan up since the end of July: whether Israeli forces withdraw in step with disarmament, or whether Hamas gives up its weapons first.
Mr Kushner said progress towards demilitarisation could come in as little as 30 days if both sides cooperated. He described the position as a win for Israel either way, on the reasoning that disarmament would remove a security threat, and that a refusal to disarm would bring American and international support for Israeli military action.
What the roadmap asks for
Under the 15 point roadmap put forward by the Board of Peace on 30 July, Hamas would hand over heavy weapons, arms factories, bases, rocket launchers and maps of its tunnels to representatives of the three mediating governments, who would pass them to a United Nations backed committee of independent Palestinian technocrats. That committee would take over the day to day administration of the territory.
Hamas has said it accepts the roadmap but that implementation depends on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including halting attacks and withdrawing. Mr Netanyahu rejected the roadmap earlier this month, saying Israel would not withdraw until Hamas was completely disarmed. He faces a national election on 27 October and is campaigning on security.
Sunday's meeting in Egypt was the envoy's second known encounter with Hamas representatives. It was attended by mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. On the Hamas side it was led by Khalil Al Hayya, who was named the group's overall leader in July and who led the delegation that negotiated the October 2025 ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages.
Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, met the envoy and Board of Peace representatives separately and said he "commended and encouraged their efforts to ensure a brighter and more secure future for the people of Israel, the people of Gaza, and the entire region".
More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since October, according to figures issued by Gazan health officials and the Israeli military respectively. There was no immediate comment from the Board of Peace on Monday's meeting, and no date has been given for the two working groups to convene.