US pressure ramps up as Kushner, Mladenov to meet with Netanyahu to advance Trump's Gaza plan

According to the senior official, the talks expected in Jerusalem will focus on ways to accelerate the implementation of Trump's 20-point plan, with the end goal being a demilitarized Hamas.

Jared Kushner, Nikolay Mladenov, and Tony Blair are expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials on Monday, continuing to apply pressure on Israel to move forward with the next stage of the US plan for Gaza and advance US President Donald Trump's 20-point plan, including the 15-point document on disarming Hamas.

Ahead of the meeting in Jerusalem, a senior Board of Peace official told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that Kushner, Mladenov and Blair had held meetings in El Alamein, Egypt, with senior Egyptian officials and the other mediators, with the aim of turning the next steps in the roadmap into concrete measures for implementation. 

The three also met with the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and reviewed plans with its members ahead of the transfer of governing authority in the Gaza Strip to the technocratic body.

According to the senior official, the talks expected in Jerusalem will focus on ways to accelerate the implementation of Trump's 20-point plan, with "the United States and Israel agreeing on the end state: a demilitarized Hamas."

The official added that the goal is to reach a demilitarized Gaza in which Hamas has fully relinquished governing authority to the Palestinian technocratic government, thereby allowing the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip to proceed.

Additionally, the official stated that the steps are intended to preserve the ceasefire, begin transferring all governing authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, and ensure that Hamas has no role whatsoever in managing the future of the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the process is intended to begin the comprehensive disarmament of Hamas and the decommissioning of its military infrastructure, enable the deployment of the International Stabilization Force, and accordingly allow Israeli withdrawals.

BoP attempting to speed up entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, begin rebuilding

The Board of Peace is also seeking to accelerate the entry of humanitarian aid and the reconstruction and rebuilding process in the Gaza Strip, while ensuring that aid is neither stolen nor diverted under threat. The official stressed that, from the Board of Peace's perspective, there is no longer any room for ambiguity regarding what is required of Hamas.

"Hamas must relinquish governing authority and all weapons and military infrastructure. Gaza can never again serve as a source of terrorism against Israel," he said.