US President Donald Trump’s top aide Jared Kushner met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, an official familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.

Kushner was joined at Netanyahu’s office by Board of Peace senior envoys Nickolay Mladenov and Tony Blair, the official added. It was not immediately clear who else was participating on the Israeli side.

The meeting began in the late morning and ended in the mid-afternoon, according to an Israeli official.

It came as the US-backed Board was working to advance the 15-point road map to move forward with Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which Hamas said it agreed to, but which Netanyahu publicly rejected, asserting that the terror group has to fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal from the Strip.

The official downplayed disagreement between Israel and the US on the plan’s advancement, saying that rather than aiming for Israel’s “signature” on the 15-point plan, Monday’s meeting was focused on “moving forward on all the elements [of the plan] that we can.”

On Sunday, Kushner, Mladenov, and Blair met with Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt.

At the talks, Hamas said it would only begin disarming, as required by the US-backed Board of Peace’s Gaza plan, if Netanyahu publicly commits to adhering to the terms of the plan, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

Hamas said later that it had asked the Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to accept the plan.

The Board of Peace is hoping that coaxing........

© The Times of Israel