Palestinian interlocutor walks back claim Israel agreed to halt Gaza strikes

Exiled Palestinian politician Mohammad Dahlan reverses course after earlier claiming in a social media post that top White House aide Jared Kushner told him that he had succeeded in coaxing Israel to halt its strikes on Gaza Sunday.

An updated post by Dahlan, a former top Fatah official who has served at times as a key go-between in negotiations involving Palestinians, effectively acknowledges that Israel has yet to give any commitment to halt its strikes as part of a Hamas disarmament deal and that talks are still ongoing.

“Mr. Jared Kushner has informed us that he is working with the Israeli side to halt the attacks on Gaza,” Dahlan writes in the updated post.

The original post put online some seven hours earlier, since deleted, had garnered significant attention, given that Dahlan has rarely issued public comments on Gaza talks and because Israel had not yet revealed a decision to halt its Gaza strikes.

Overnight, Israel carried out a wave of strikes in the Strip, killing eight people, according to Hamas-controlled Gaza officials.

The US announced Thursday that Hamas had agreed to the Board of Peace’s disarmament plan, which envisions such strikes ending immediately once it is in place.

There is no comment from the Israel Defense Forces or Prime Minister Benjamin Nertanyahu’s office regarding Dahlan’s claims.