Trump’s envoy says Hamas disarmament could begin within 30 days

U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner said on Monday (August 17, 2026) that progress towards disarming Hamas and moving forward with a Gaza peace plan could begin within a month after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“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,” Mr. Kushner told Fox News while in Tel Aviv.

The comments came as Mr. Kushner and Mr. Netanyahu agreed that an American general would verify Hamas’s disarmament, an Israeli official said, as the premier insisted there would be no Israeli pullout from Gaza until then.

The understanding marks a new attempt by President Donald Trump’s administration to satisfy Israel after Mr. Netanyahu, facing a tough re-election fight, publicly rejected the latest part of a U.S. plan aimed at “ending the devastating Gaza war”.

Mr. Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a long-time family friend of Netanyahu, met the Israeli leader in Jerusalem a day after holding rare direct talks in Egypt with Hamas, which has publicly committed itself to the plan.

The two sides “agreed that no redeployment or reconstruction would take place in the Gaza Strip before Hamas is disarmed throughout Gaza”, a senior Israeli official told AFP.

“It was also agreed that the first step toward the demilitarisation of the Strip would be to require Hamas to hand over its weapons for decommissioning under the supervision of an American general,” the official said.

A roadmap agreed by Hamas on July 30 said that the decommissioning of weapons would be supervised by the International Stabilisation Force, the nascent unit that aims to deploy to Gaza if the situation calms. It is led by U.S. Major General Jasper Jeffers.

Hamas had pledged to hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing body, an arrangement that brought scepticism from Netanyahu but which Trump hailed as a breakthrough.

An official with Mr. Trump’s “Board of Peace” implementing the deal said that “every weapon collected will be fully decommissioned so it cannot be used again” and said that Israel “retains its full right of self-defence”.

“If Hamas resorts to terror, violence or attempts to rearm, Israel will retain the right to act accordingly,” the official said.

Other Board of Peace members joining Kushner in the talks included former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mr. Kushner in the talks in Egypt had demanded that Hamas prove it is giving up its weapons and that the group — whose unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack against Israel launched the Gaza war — renounce any future role in governing the Palestinian territory, according to sources in the negotiation.

A Hamas official said the group, represented by its new leader Khalil al-Hayya, told Mr. Kushner it was committed to the Gaza plan and wanted pressure on Mr. Netanyahu.