Author: Emily Rose and Steve Holland
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Saturday to discuss Gaza, two people familiar with the matter said, with local authorities reporting further violence in the enclave.
The United States on Thursday announced plans to rebuild a “New Gaza” from the ground up, including residential towers, data centers and beachfront resorts.
The project is part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to promote an October ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has been shaken by repeated violations of the agreement.
Local authorities report more deaths
Israeli fires killed three people, including two children, in two separate incidents in the northern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday.
The death toll in Gaza now stands at 71,654 since the war began, with 481 deaths since a ceasefire in October, according to health ministry data.
A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that the meeting was taking place as planned but did not provide further details.
According to Israeli statistics, Gaza was reduced to rubble after Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and triggering a war.
Ali Shaath, the head of the U.S.-backed Palestinian Transitional Council that temporarily governs Gaza, said on Thursday that the Rafah crossing, which is effectively the only way in and out of Gaza for almost all of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents, would open next week.
Israel wants to limit the number of Palestinians entering Gaza through its border with Egypt to ensure more people are allowed out than in, three people familiar with the matter said ahead of the expected opening of the border.
The border was supposed to be open in the initial stages of Trump’s plan to end the war.
Earlier this month, Washington announced that the plan was now entering its second phase, which expected Israel to further withdraw its troops from Gaza and Hamas to relinquish control of the area’s administration.
The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.
(Reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Jan Harvey and Sharon Singleton)
