Netanyahu rejects the Gaza plan as Kushner re-enters the talks
Netanyahu rejected staged Hamas disarmament; Kushner will travel to Israel with Mladenov and Blair. The same week he mocked British media while Jordan Valley water diversion continued.
Geopolitics··Night
The plan clause and Kushner's tour
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the clause in the 15-point Gaza plan under discussion through the Board of Peace that requires Hamas to disarm in stages while Israeli forces withdraw at the same time. According to Al Jazeera, Jared Kushner will travel to Israel and Egypt next week with Board of Peace director general Nickolay Mladenov and executive committee member Tony Blair. A Board of Peace official said the two sides agree on the desired outcome and are looking for ways to accelerate progress, without publishing a firm public timetable. The same report recorded 1,260 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began and 73,389 since October 2023. OCHA counted 3,033 settler attacks in the occupied West Bank between January 2025 and June 2026. The split over the plan's core clause puts the diplomatic calendar back on the Mladenov, Blair and Kushner track while post-ceasefire deaths continue. What will change on the ground after the rejection and whether talks will advance remain uncertain; the report says only that a new visit by Kushner, Mladenov and Blair is planned.[1]
A language clash with London
On the same Thursday, speaking on an Israeli podcast, Netanyahu attacked British media coverage of Israel and called the country the Islamic Republic of Britain. He contrasted today's press with Randolph Churchill's reporting during the 1967 war. Rabbis from the Movement for Progressive Judaism said Netanyahu does not speak for British Jews and that his words do not represent them. They called the language dangerous and irresponsible at a time of rising antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred. Netanyahu also alluded to remarks by US Vice President JD Vance about the United Kingdom. Relations with the Labour government have deteriorated since 2024 over suspended arms sales, sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers and British recognition of Palestinian statehood. The Gaza-plan rejection and the language aimed at London make the piled-up tension over media, arms and recognition visible in the same week.[2]
A cut water line at Fasayil
At Fasayil in the Jordan Valley of the West Bank, settlers took over the irrigation pipeline of a natural spring in June 2026. They diverted water that had supplied Palestinian farmland to fill an ancient pool they then advertised to Israeli visitors. A Palestinian field researcher estimates settlers now control about 95 per cent of springs in the northern Jordan Valley. Farmer Saad Nemer said the water supply remains cut off, depriving residents of what they depend on for their homes, livelihoods and farmland. Palestinian Authority water official Adel Yassin described it as a water war. United Nations data record at least 160 attacks on water and sanitation sites across the Palestinian territories in 2026. COGAT and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did not respond to requests for comment. Kushner's new tour, the lock on the plan clause, the clash with London and the cut pipeline at Fasayil show that Gaza diplomacy is not moving apart from daily pressure in the West Bank. A new mediation tour is being prepared while water cuts and settler pressure continue on the ground.[3], [1]
