About 200 Hamas fighters remain trapped in Rafah tunnels as Israel refuses to grant them passage, threatening the truce.
US mediator Jared Kushner has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the fragile US-backed ceasefire in Gaza.
Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump who helped broker the agreement, met Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday as part of US efforts to stabilise the tenuous truce.
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The meeting comes a month after Washington and regional powers pushed Israel to agree to a ceasefire. The truce has partly halted two years of Israeli bombardment, which levelled much of Gaza and killed more than 69,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities.
The talks focused on some of the most contentious elements of Trump’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s two-year war on the Palestinian territory, according to Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian.
The officials discussed plans for the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of international security forces and the establishment of a technocratic government in the territory that excludes Hamas, she said.
Hamas has repeatedly insisted that relinquishing its weapons is a red line.
Addressing Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, Netanyahu promised that Gaza would be “demilitarised, either the easy way or the hard way”, in what was a thinly veiled threat to escalate the war.
Hamas fighters in Rafah
A key point of contention remains a group of roughly 200 Hamas fighters trapped in tunnels beneath Rafah, an area still controlled by Israeli forces. Hamas has demanded their safe passage to Gaza’s interior, but Israel has refused.
The US’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, described the proposal to grant the fighters safe passage in exchange for disarmament as “a test case” for the broader peace plan.
A Hamas official confirmed that negotiations over the issue were ongoing, saying the group was eager to resolve the dispute “to remove any pretext Israel could use to undermine the ceasefire agreement”.
However, he ruled out surrendering the fighters. Another Palestinian source speaking to Reuters warned that any Israeli attempt to forcibly extract them could risk the entire truce.
Beyond the immediate crisis, the ceasefire also requires agreement on a transitional governing council for Gaza excluding Hamas, the formation of the proposed stabilisation force, and conditions for reconstruction and disarmament. Each of these steps is expected to face resistance from both Hamas and Israel, given the political and security implications.
The proposed international force could require a United Nations mandate before deployment, and few nations have expressed willingness to participate without one. Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye are among the potential contributors.
However, the United Arab Emirates has signalled hesitation. “Under such circumstances, the UAE will probably not participate in such a force,” Emirati presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said at the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate Forum.
