President Trump’s special envoy Jared Kushner directly linked the lack of progress on the rehabilitation of the war-torn Gaza Strip to upcoming Israeli elections.
Israel will hold elections in late October, and polls show it is a tight race between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponents.
“We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state,” said Kushner, who was speaking at a conference on Sunday in Kyiv, where he was holding talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war. “They just have a crazy election, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards.”
Kushner’s remarks are a rare and candid criticism of Netanyahu’s government by a senior Trump administration official over the conservative Israeli leader’s Gaza policy.
U.S. efforts to advance plans to disarm Gaza militant group Hamas and open the way for investment into rebuilding the devastated Palestinian enclave have stalled amid disagreements with Israel and Hamas about the proposed roadmap.
Large parts of Gaza were destroyed during the war sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel nearly three years ago. Many Palestinians are still living in tent encampments a year after Israel and Hamas agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire.
Kushner, who is Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, did not elaborate on how the Israeli government is impeding the Gaza peace plan.
“Gaza has not worked for a very, very long time. It was basically built by NGOs and terrorists,” he said, adding, “Now we have a plan to go forward.”
A U.S. official familiar with the matter told CBS News one of the issues irking Washington is that Israel had not given guarantees needed to set up a new police force in Gaza. That police force is needed to create a security architecture independent of Hamas that could facilitate the entry into the Strip of a new technocratic government backed by Washington. Israel is also not meeting its commitments to allow in materials needed for certain reconstruction projects, the official said.
The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Nickolay Mladenov, a senior diplomat on the Board of Peace, tasked with advancing the U.S. peace plan, said in remarks to the United Nations in late August that Israel’s continued airstrikes in Gaza impede getting Hamas’ fighters to give up their weapons.
“It only delays the demilitarization that would happen, and it obstructs the civilian transition that should take place to ensure that remilitarization will not be possible in the future,” Mladenov said.
Israel has continued to carry out near-daily airstrikes in Gaza since agreeing to a ceasefire in October. Israel says the strikes are aimed at preventing imminent threats to its soldiers and to foil efforts by Hamas to regroup and rearm. Israel has also continued an operation to kill those who participated in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas into Israel that sparked the subsequent war.
While Israel retains the right to defend its troops in Gaza, U.S. officials see some of the Israeli airstrikes as going beyond that scope and perpetuating insecurity in the enclave, said the U.S. official familiar with the matter.
The peace plan negotiated by the Board of Peace in August calls for Hamas to gradually disarm while Israel simultaneously gradually withdraws from territory it controls in Gaza. Israel has controlled over half of Gaza’s territory since the start of the ceasefire.
Last month, Netanyahu rejected that plan, saying Israel would not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed.”
Israeli officials have expressed doubt that Hamas would relinquish all of its weapons unless Israel keeps the whole of its leverage over the group, including its military presence inside Gaza.
Hamas has agreed to the U.S.-backed plan but has resisted any steps to disarm. The group says Israel has failed to hold up its side of the bargain of the ceasefire.