Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US-backed Board of Peace have agreed to establish two working groups focused on the disarmament and demilitarisation of Gaza.
Monday’s agreement came at a meeting in Israel between Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Board of Peace Director Nickolay Mladenov, according to Netanyahu’s office.
“The Prime Minister and Board of Peace had deep and constructive discussions. It was agreed to establish two working groups,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement posted on X.
The first group, it added, would focus on the “disarmament and demilitarisation of Gaza,” which both Israel and the Board of Peace are determined “should be prompt and completed before any reconstruction happens in Gaza.”
A second working group will focus on “sanitation, clean water and other public health issues for the people of Gaza” that also affect people in Israel, according to the statement.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair also attended the meeting, The Times of Israel reported, citing an unnamed source.
The talks come after Kushner visited the Egyptian capital Cairo on Sunday, accompanied by Mladenov and Blair, where they discussed the same issues with Hamas officials.
In October 2023, Israel launched genocide in Gaza that has killed over 73,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 174,000 others.
Despite a ceasefire that has remained in place since October 2025 as part of the first phase of Trump’s Gaza peace plan, Israel has continued to attack the Palestinian enclave, killing at least 1,260 people and wounding over 4,100 others, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The second phase of Trump’s plan envisages the transfer of governance in Gaza to a Palestinian technocratic committee, deploying an international stabilisation force, and placing weapons under international supervision.
Israel, for its part, is expected to carry out a phased withdrawal from Gaza to allow reconstruction efforts to begin.
