by Dave DeCamp | August 17, 2026 at 3:09 pm ET | Gaza, Israel
A meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a long-time family friend of the Israeli leader, ended with an agreement that Israel will continue so-called “targeted strikes” in Gaza, Haaretz reported on Monday.
The reported agreement to allow Israel to continue attacks in Gaza comes despite Kushner holding a meeting a day earlier with Hamas officials, who said they were committed to the disarmament plan announced by President Trump and the so-called “Board of Peace.”
Later in the day, Kushner told Fox News that the US wouldn’t “restrict Israel’s right to defend itself” and that one purpose of the meeting was to “clarify what that means.” He also described the disarmament deal as a “win-win” for Israel because either Hamas disarms, or Hamas doesn’t “follow through” and then Israel would have “a lot more support from the US and others to go and finish the job.”
Also on Monday, President Trump said that Israel should “stop striking Gaza” because Hamas agreed to “lay down their weapons,” comments that Hamas welcomed, though the results of the Kushner-Netanyahu meeting suggest Trump isn’t serious about putting pressure on Israel to halt all of its attacks.
Kushner and Netanyahu were joined by the Board of Peace’s top Gaza envoy, Bulgarian politician Nikolay Mladenov, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.
The Haaretz report said the officials agreed to allow work to begin in Gaza on sanitation infrastructure to prevent disease outbreaks and contamination of groundwater and coastal waters, but broader reconstruction will still not be allowed.
They also discussed a preliminary plan that would involve Hamas handing over its weapons to a force led by Jasper Jeffires, a US Army general who’s been designated as the commander of the “International Stabilization Force,” which is supposed to deploy to Gaza under President Trump’s plan.
But the Haaretz report said Israeli officials expressed skepticism about the disarmament plan, and Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have repeatedly rejected the overall proposal. An Israeli official told The Guardian that there had been no breakthrough in the meeting and that Israel would continue to carry out operations in Gaza.
Israel’s attacks in Gaza since the so-called ceasefire deal was signed in October 2025 have killed at least 1,265 Palestinians and wounded 4,198, according to the latest numbers released by Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry said that over the previous 48 hours, Israeli attacks have killed at least two Palestinians and injured 15.
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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.
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