Kushner, ex-PA official Dahlan credited for breakthrough in Hamas disarmament talks

Direct contacts between Jared Kushner and the Palestinian Authority’s exiled former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan helped secure a breakthrough in Hamas’s disarmament talks with the Washington-controlled Board of Peace.

Dahlan aide Samir Masharawi makes the revelation during an interview with the Jordanian Al-Ghad news outlet.

“Dahlan… intervened in these negotiations… through direct contacts with the American side, specifically with Mr. Jared Kushner, with [Board of Peace Gaza envoy] Mr. [Nickolay] Mladenov and with the entire American team,” says Masharawi, who is a senior member of a Dahlan-led breakaway faction from PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.

This is the first time that Dahlan has been publicly linked to the Hamas disarmament talks after an extended period in which he worked behind the scenes. Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s top aide and son-in-law, played a key role in reaching the ceasefire in Gaza last October.

An Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations tells The Times of Israel that Kushner has been consulting with Dahlan since the start of the Trump aide’s involvement in the Gaza file last year.

Dahlan — who lives in Abu Dhabi, where he also serves as a close adviser to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed — also met earlier this year with Shin Bet chief David Zini, a source familiar with the matter confirmed.