Kushner in Israel as trapped Hamas fighters issue bedevils Gaza truce progress

By Steven Scheer and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -U.S. mediators are meeting Israel's prime minister on Monday with attention turning to the second, far more complex, phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and the immediate problem of a standoff over a group of Hamas fighters still holed up in tunnels.

The meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes a month after Washington and regional states pressed Israel and Hamas to a truce after two years of devastating war.

However, any progress in Trump's ceasefire plan will not only require both sides to agree on issues that have foiled previous peacemaking efforts, but also to resolve the immediate stalemate over the trapped Hamas fighters.

TRAPPED FIGHTERS AS TEST CASE

There are around 200 fighters in the tunnels under Rafah in the Gaza zone still controlled by Israel's military, with Hamas demanding they be allowed to depart - something Israel has so far resisted.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff last week described efforts to resolve the standoff by giving the fighters safe passage back into Hamas-controlled Gaza areas in return for disarming, as a test case for future steps in the wider ceasefire plan.

A Palestinian source said mediators had stepped up their efforts to resolve the dispute, believing any armed attempt to force their surrender could risk the entire ceasefire.

Netanyahu's office issued a photograph of him meeting Kushner on Monday. The two were expected to discuss the issue of the fighters as well as further steps in the ceasefire, two senior Israeli officials said.

Those steps will require agreement on a transitional governing body for Gaza without Hamas involvement, the formation of an international stabilisation force and the setting of the terms of its involvement, Hamas disarmament and reconstruction.

Each of those elements would likely involve significant pushback from either Hamas or Israel or both. The international force might require a United Nations mandate for countries to risk putting any forces on the ground.

The United Arab Emirates does not yet see a clear framework for the force and under current circumstances would not take part, a senior Emirati official said on Monday.

BOTH SIDES ACCUSE EACH OTHER OF BREACHING TRUCE DEAL

On Sunday, Hamas returned the body of an Israeli soldier killed in Gaza more than a decade ago. That leaves the bodies of four hostages taken at the outbreak of the most recent war still in the Palestinian territory, although it is unclear whether they can be retrieved.

Hamas was supposed to hand over all 28 bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza but Israeli officials have acknowledged that it will be a challenge for the group to access around three of them. An international taskforce will help, according to the truce plan.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of breaching the October truce deal, with Israel saying Hamas was stalling over returning hostage remains and Hamas saying Israel continued to obstruct aid deliveries.

There have been at least two deadly attacks by Palestinian militants on Israeli forces in Rafah, as well as repeated Israeli airstrikes that have killed 244 Palestinians since the truce agreement, according to local health authorities.

Two Palestinians, including a child, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday after another man was killed by Israeli fire on Sunday, the local health authorities said. Israel's military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the strikes.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Aidan Lewis)