- August 18, 2026
‘Progress In As Little As 30 Days’: Trump Envoy Says Hamas Disarmament May Begin Within A Month
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Jared Kushner comments came after he met Netanyahu in Jerusalem and discussed a mechanism for verifying Hamas’s disarmament.
US President Donald Trump’s envoy and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. (AFP file photo)
US President Donald Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner said on Monday that steps towards disarming Hamas and advancing a Gaza peace plan could begin within a month, as Washington pushed ahead with efforts to end the war.
“We could be seeing progress… in as little as 30 days, hopefully starting to take some of the weapons out, and hopefully, you know, filling in some of the tunnels as well,” Kushner told Fox News from Tel Aviv.
His comments came after he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and discussed a mechanism for verifying Hamas’s disarmament.
US General To Verify Disarmament
An Israeli official said Netanyahu and Kushner agreed that an American general would oversee the verification of Hamas’s disarmament. Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not withdraw from Gaza until the group is fully disarmed.
The two sides also agreed that there would be no Israeli redeployment or reconstruction in Gaza before Hamas gives up its weapons throughout the territory, the official said.
The arrangement follows rare direct talks between Kushner and Hamas representatives in Egypt. Hamas has publicly said it is committed to the US-backed Gaza plan.
A roadmap agreed by Hamas on July 30 proposed that weapons decommissioning be supervised by the International Stabilisation Force, a planned international unit for Gaza led by US Major General Jasper Jeffers.
Hamas Asked To Give Up Weapons
Hamas has pledged to hand its weapons to a new Palestinian governing body, a proposal that has drawn scepticism from Netanyahu but was welcomed by Trump.
A representative of Trump’s “Board of Peace”, which is involved in implementing the plan, said weapons collected from Hamas would be fully decommissioned and that Israel would retain its right to self-defence.
Kushner also sought assurances that Hamas would give up its weapons and accept that it would have no future role in governing Gaza, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
A Hamas official said the group, represented by its leader Khalil al-Hayya, told Kushner it remained committed to the Gaza plan and wanted pressure put on Netanyahu.
Kushner was joined in the talks by other members of the Board of Peace, including former British prime minister Tony Blair, as Washington sought to bridge differences between Israel and Hamas over the next phase of the plan.
(With inputs from AFP)
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