Blair meets Hamas for Gaza peace talks

Sir Tony Blair has met Hamas leaders in an attempt to push forward the Gaza peace plan.

The former prime minister met the terror group in Cairo on Sunday, with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law. They will hold talks with Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Monday.

The unusual meeting led by Mr Kushner was arranged to press Hamas to fulfil its commitment to disarm.

Sir Tony and Mr Kushner are in the region to revive the faltering peace deal struck between Hamas and Israel in October to end the war.

Also present is Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician, who is a high representative for Mr Trump’s Board of Peace.

Phase two of the plan, which involves new Palestinian governance and the start of the Strip’s reconstruction, has been deadlocked by arguments over the sequencing of Israel’s withdrawal and Hamas’s disarmament.

Sir Tony sits on the executive body of the Board of Peace, an international coalition of leaders aimed at achieving lasting peace and reconstruction in Gaza.

He was not given the position of lead envoy, after several Arab states voiced concerns about his role in the 2003 Iraq war.

Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s new political leader, attended the Cairo meeting with Hassan Rashad, the Egyptian intelligence chief, Ali al-Thawadi, the Qatari diplomat, and a senior Turkish official.

Next, Mr Kushner and Sir Tony will meet Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, who last week publicly rejected the terms of the Gaza deal for the first time.

Mr Netanyahu, whose relationship with the White House has significantly soured in recent months, said that Mr Trump’s latest roadmap for Gaza was unacceptable.

The Israeli military still controls swathes of Gaza and its border areas. It continues to intermittently strike the strip, despite American demands to end hostilities.

The Board of Peace’s 15-point plan calls for the immediate end of military operations in Gaza, including Hamas’s disarmament and Israeli troops withdrawing, allowing the territory to be rebuilt under a new civilian Palestinian administration.

Mr Netanyahu, who is struggling in the polls before an October election, has refused to accept the plan until Hamas is disarmed. Experts say that will be the hardest part of the deal to implement and could take years.

For years, the US had refused to deal with Hamas, which carried out the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that provoked the Gaza war.

However, the Trump administration has become comfortable with direct contact, in the hopes of finally bringing an end to the conflict.

Israeli operations in Gaza have killed at least 1,262 people since the ceasefire came into effect on Oct 10, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry that are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.-Telegraph

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