Witkoff and Kushner in Israel to talk ceasefire, day after Gaza strikes

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss regional developments following Gaza airstrikes. Photo / Getty Images

US envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Monday, the day after the week-old ceasefire in Gaza faced its most serious test yet when Israel launched airstrikes across the enclave in response to the deaths of two Israeli soldiers and both sides accused each other of violating the agreement.

Netanyahu, Witkoff and Kushner discussed “developments and updates in the region”, Shosh Bedrosian, a spokeswoman for Netanyahu’s office, said during a news conference Monday. She added that Vice-President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, will visit Israel “for a few days” and meet with Netanyahu.

Witkoff and Kushner’s visit, which was planned in advance of Sunday’s violence, was designed to mediate the obstacles that had already cropped up in the ceasefire’s first days – such as ongoing disputes over whether Hamas is deliberately holding back the bodies of some dead hostages, or whether Israel is banning the entry of equipment needed for them to be found. But the deaths of the Israeli soldiers and the heavy response from the Israel Defense Forces on Sunday is likely to be at the forefront of his visit.

An uneasy calm appeared to be holding in Gaza – but Palestinians said they did not trust it would last.

Late on Sunday, the Israeli military announced that it had concluded its strikes and unilaterally declared the ceasefire was being enforced again. Humanitarian aid would continue to enter Gaza on Monday as usual, an Israeli security official said, in a reversal of a decision announced on Sunday evening to ban all aid from entering Gaza as punishment for the attack on IDF troops.

Aid officials confirmed they had received information from Israel on Sunday evening that the aid would be banned starting Monday, but also that the reversal had been implemented and aid was already entering Gaza as planned on Monday afternoon. The aid officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue; the Israeli security official did so because they were not authorised to speak with the media.

Vance, during his visit to Israel, is expected to speak with Netanyahu on Tuesday about the next phase of the ceasefire plan – the details of which have not been negotiated and include the thornier, long-term issues for a permanent end to the war, according to a person familiar with his schedule in Israel, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans. That conversation is expected to focus on a multinational force to deploy to Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas, they said.

In Gaza, the hours-long strikes on Sunday compounded fears that the ceasefire there could end up looking similar to the US-backed agreement that was struck in Lebanon, where over the 11 months since the truce came into effect, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily airstrikes.

“They’re calling it a ceasefire in the media as if the war is officially over, but that’s not how it feels to us,” said Dalia Zeyad, speaking to The Washington Post from the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, where strikes hit on Sunday.

“I don’t think it’s really a ceasefire. The attacks will continue, just less frequently, like what happens in Lebanon.”

Israel will “violate” the agreement whenever it sees fit, she added.

“They always find a justification.”

Palestinians in Gaza described Sunday’s strikes as a fire belt of explosions that happened one after the other. The silences in between explosions were filled with the sound of screams and ambulances, they said.

“I feel like Gaza is hanging by a thread. There’s no safe place left here,” said Ahmed Abu al-Qumsan, who is displaced in the al-Zawaida area, where people were killed in the strikes.

“Even when they say there’s a ceasefire, people don’t relax – we’ve learned not to,” he said. “There will always be violations, there will always be airstrikes. It’s like living on borrowed time.”

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