US envoy Jared Kushner ended two days of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders without a breakthrough on President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, leaving the sequence of Hamas's disarmament and an Israeli withdrawal unresolved.

Kushner met Netanyahu in Jerusalem for several hours on Monday, a day after taking the unusual step of meeting Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya in Cairo. Trump's Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, also attended the Jerusalem talks.

The diplomatic push centres on a 15-point US-backed roadmap intended to move forward the ceasefire framework agreed last year. It envisages Hamas gradually giving up its weapons as Israeli forces withdraw, alongside the deployment of an International Stabilization Force and a new Palestinian police force.

Netanyahu has publicly rejected that sequence. He says Israeli forces will not withdraw from positions in Gaza until Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups have been completely disarmed.

Hamas says it has accepted the roadmap but insists implementation depends on Israel first halting its attacks and beginning its withdrawal. The group has also linked the surrender of its heaviest weapons to the establishment of a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu's government opposes.

The disagreement has stalled other parts of the ceasefire framework, including reconstruction and the deployment of international forces between Israeli troops and areas administered by a planned Palestinian technocratic committee.

During Sunday's Cairo meeting, Kushner told Hamas officials that they needed to take tangible steps towards disarmament, according to Axios, citing a source with direct knowledge of the talks.

Hamas representatives said they were ready to transfer governing authority to the Palestinian technocratic administration and not interfere once it began operating in Gaza. In its public statement after the meeting, however, Hamas did not explicitly mention disarmament and accused Israel of failing to implement earlier ceasefire obligations.

The Cairo talks also involved Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators. Tony Blair, a member of the Board of Peace, and Mladenov participated alongside Kushner, while Hamas's delegation was led by al-Hayya.

The direct Kushner-Hamas contact was particularly notable. Reuters said it was only Kushner's second known meeting with Hamas representatives. He previously met the group's officials alongside US envoy Steve Witkoff in October 2025 during negotiations that helped secure a ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.

The latest diplomacy is taking place as Netanyahu prepares for Israel's 27 October election. His coalition is trailing in opinion polls, and diplomats cited by Reuters said Israel was unlikely to make major concessions over Gaza before the vote.

Netanyahu's rejection of the roadmap has also exposed unusual public friction with Trump, whose administration wants to advance the next stage of its Gaza plan.

Five Arab countries, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia issued a joint statement on Sunday condemning Israel's rejection, saying it threatened efforts to end the conflict.

The diplomatic effort has proceeded alongside renewed Israeli attacks in Gaza. Israel resumed airstrikes after reducing them earlier this month, and Palestinian medics reported casualties from recent attacks in Khan Younis and Nuseirat.

Pressure on Netanyahu is also coming from another direction in the occupied West Bank.

The United States has urged him to publicly condemn Israeli settlers who surrounded Palestinian homes in Qusra, near Nablus, cut water and electricity and blocked residents' movement. One of the affected properties belongs to a Palestinian-American.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a longstanding supporter of Israeli settlements, described those responsible for besieging the Palestinian home as “Israeli terrorists” and their actions as criminal.

Israeli soldiers later removed a tent erected by settlers near the homes, but Palestinians said settlers remained in the area. Netanyahu had not publicly condemned the siege as of Friday.

More than 2,200 Palestinians had been displaced in the West Bank during 2026 because of settler violence and other access restrictions by the end of June, according to UN data cited by Reuters.

The West Bank contains about three million Palestinians and more than 500,000 Israeli settlers. Most countries and the United Nations consider Israeli settlements in occupied territory illegal under international law; Israel disputes that interpretation.

After Monday's meetings, the central dispute over Gaza remained intact: Netanyahu insists on complete disarmament before withdrawal, while the US roadmap envisages the two processes proceeding in stages. No agreement resolving that sequence was announced.