‘Beyond your comprehension’: US is only beginning to grasp Gaza’s militarization, Kushner says

“We’re now starting to understand the scope of the militarization of Gaza,” Jared Kushner told reporters in Kyiv. “It is beyond your comprehension, and so demilitarizing it is not going to be easy.”

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We’re now starting to understand the scope of the militarization of Gaza. It is beyond your comprehension, and so demilitarizing it is not going to be easy.

The US envoy said Washington had worked with Hamas for more than four months and that the group had signed an agreement committing it to demilitarization. But Kushner stressed the practical difficulty of sending a government into a place where weapons remain. “You can’t go in if there’s guns, right? You can’t send the government into a place,” he said.

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You can’t go in if there’s guns, right? You can’t send the government into a place.

Kushner also described discussions with Israel as complicated by domestic politics. Washington and Jerusalem, he said, agree on the desired end state, but Israel’s election had made some aspects of the process more difficult. “We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state,” he said. “They just have a crazy election, and that makes them a little irrational in certain regards, but we’re very determined that we’re working through these things.”

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We’re working through some political issues in Israel. I think we agree with them on the end state.

Kushner and fellow US envoy Steve Witkoff were in Kyiv on Sunday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on security and diplomacy. Zelenskyy described the discussions as “very substantial” and said they covered security and economic guarantees for Ukraine, air-defense missile supplies and a winter support package. He also expressed hope that trilateral talks involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States would resume soon. The two US envoys had visited Moscow on Saturday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Very substantial