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In a significant diplomatic push to revive the stalled Gaza peace process, a high-level delegation led by US envoy Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Board of Peace Director-General Nickolay Mladenov met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, as per Israeli media.
The meeting comes on the heels of a direct sit-down yesterday between the delegation and Hamas leadership in El-Alamein in Egypt, aimed at salvaging a 15-point US-backed "road map" for the reconstruction and governance of the war-torn Gaza Strip The US-led "Board of Peace," an international body inaugurated in February 2026 this year to oversee post-war Gaza, has been working to transition authority to a Palestinian technocratic government. The board has installed Donald Trump as chairman for life. The US-backed Board works to advance the 15-point road map to move forward with Trump's peace plan for Gaza, which Hamas said it agreed to, but Netanyahu publicly rejected, asserting that the terror group must fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal from the Strip, as per a Times of Israel report. Hamas has said it accepted the plan but that implementing it would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawing its forces and halting attacks as per Al Jazeera. Last week, the Board of Peace officials had confirmed that Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, would lead a delegation to break the diplomatic deadlock, visiting Egypt and Israel. Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and other regional powers have been actively mediating the talks, even as several Arab nations recently criticized Israel's public rejection of the road map, warning that it could obstruct long-term regional stability. The foreign ministers of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt issued a joint statement on Sunday condemning Israel's rejection of the roadmap linked to Trump's peace plan. The ministers warned that rejecting the framework could undermine international efforts to end the war and establish a lasting political settlement in Gaza. (ANI)
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