Trump’s envoy Kushner meets Gaza mediators in Cairo
<p> CAIRO: Donald Trump’s envoys met with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo on Sunday, a diplomatic source said, in a bid to advance the US president’s Gaza peace plan, even as Israel pressed on with airstrikes in the enclave.</p> <p> Hamas officials were present at some of the meetings between mediators and with Trump’s envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, the diplomat said.</p> <p> A regional official and a Hamas official confirmed a rare meeting between Kushner and Khalil Al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’ Gaza leadership. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly.</p> <p> Kushner is scheduled to meet on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior Israeli official said. Netanyahu said on Aug. 9 that Trump’s latest Gaza peace road map was “unacceptable.”<br /> <br /> <strong>Strikes injure several people</strong><br /> <br /> The official said that Israel was concerned about Washington’s demand to end targeted assassinations of Hamas militants in Gaza as the group rebuilds its forces.<br /> Trump’s peace plan calls for the immediate cessation of military operations in Gaza. It foresees Hamas disarming as Israeli troops withdraw from the enclave and Gaza is rebuilt under a new civilian Palestinian administration.<br /> After scaling back its attacks in the enclave earlier this month, Israel’s airstrikes have resumed in the past few days.<br /> The Israeli military said on Sunday that its aircraft struck two Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.<br /> At least five Palestinians were injured in the strike which hit a tent encampment, medics in the enclave said.<br /> One of the injured in the strike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza died from their wounds, medics at Nasser hospital said later.<br /> A separate airstrike, which the Israeli military said targeted another militant, hit an apartment in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, wounding several people, medics said.<br /> Earlier, <a href=https://www.arabnews.com/node/2654859/middle-east>Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya met with Egypt’s intelligence chief Hassan Rashad</a> in Cairo. Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, Hazem Qassem, said Al-Hayya would brief mediators on what he said were Israel’s ceasefire violations.<br /> Kushner had earlier met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, El-Sisi’s office said.<br /> Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, to which both Israel and Hamas had agreed.<br /> Hamas said it had agreed to the plan to avoid a resumption of the war, but added that implementation of the deal would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawing its forces and halting attacks.<br /> An October ceasefire halted major fighting in a devastating two-year war in Gaza that was sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, but it failed to end Israeli attacks entirely.<br /> Israeli fire has killed more than 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, since October.</p> <p> <strong><em>*Reuters & AP</em></strong></p>