Kushner, Netanyahu Agree US General Will Oversee Hamas Weapons Handover

August 17, 2026 — After an hours-long Jerusalem meeting joined by US Ambassador Mike Huckabee and former UK PM Tony Blair, Jared Kushner and Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed that Gaza 'demilitarization' should begin with a Hamas weapons handover supervised by a US military officer, Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, who heads the International Stabilization Force (ISF). Weapons surrendered by Hamas would be transferred to the proposed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) and the ISF. The meeting followed rare direct Board of Peace talks with Hamas leadership in Egypt, part of a renewed push to revive the roadmap Trump and Hamas have endorsed but which Netanyahu formally rejected Aug 9. Netanyahu maintained no IDF pullback would be approved before full disarmament of both light and heavy weapons, keeping the fundamental sequencing dispute — disarmament first vs. withdrawal first — unresolved even as the verification mechanism takes shape.