Kushner: Release of hostages ‘wouldn’t have been possible without the bravery of the IDF and its soldiers’

US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a close confidant on Middle East issues, praises Israel’s military performance over the last two years during the government meeting in Jerusalem convened to vote on the ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

“Obviously bringing the hostages home has been a priority for President Trump for a very, very long time, and we’ve all worked very tirelessly to do that,” says Kushner.

“This all would not have been possible without the bravery of the IDF and its soldiers, what they’ve accomplished not just in Gaza, but also what they’ve done in the theater over the last couple of years to eliminate Hezbollah in the north and really degrade them,” he continues.

“What you were able to do in Iran, it really helped set a big tone,” he says. “But particularly seeing the way your citizen army — you know, a lot of you have been through sacrifices on the line to fight for your country to try and make a difference — I think that made a very very big difference in there.”

Kushner says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “really did an incredible job with this, and did a great job with the negotiations.”

“You held your lines firm and I think that between you and President Trump, you had a lot of alignment on what the end state should be,” he concludes.