Report: Dermer set out Israel’s needs to White House meeting on future of Gaza

By Lazar Berman

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28 August 2025, 9:23 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer walks into the Executive Office Building next to the White House in Washington, DC on December 26, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

During yesterday’s White House meeting on the future of Gaza, US President Donald Trump called Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer into the meeting while it was already in progress to set out Israel’s needs for the “day after” Hamas, Channel 12 reports.

Dermer, a top confidante of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Trump that Israel does not want to permanently occupy the Gaza Strip or deport Gaza’s residents, according to the report. What Israel does want, Dermer said, is to destroy Hamas before handing Gaza over to a governing body that won’t threaten the Jewish state.

Citing an unnamed source, Channel 12 reports that Dermer said that if Israel’s conditions were met, it was open to compromise on all other issues in Gaza.

The source says that the aim of the White House “day after” effort is for the US to lead the building of a governance mechanism for Gaza that enjoys international support and allows Israel to withdraw safely, without Gaza being taken over by a terrorist group.

According to the report, the White House meeting on Wednesday did not end with any definitive decision or conclusion, but it did highlight the pressing question of who can govern Gaza after Hamas.