Kushner, Blair and Mladenov sit down with Netanyahu after meeting with Hamas

By Nava Freiberg

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17 August 2026, 12:23 pm

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Nava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff (L) shakes hands with Board of Peace top envoy Nickolay Mladenov, right, next to US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and key adviser Jared Kushner, during a meeting of the Board of Peace at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 22, 2026. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

US President Donald Trump’s top aide Jared Kushner has begun his planned meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today, an official familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel.

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

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

The official downplays 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, today’s meeting is focused on “moving forward on all the elements [of the plan] that we can.”