Before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet endorsed the first stage of a peace deal with Hamas, orchestrated by emissaries of President Donald Trump, the hard-line Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir vented his frustration about the agreement. Just a day earlier, Ben-Gvir led a group of Jewish worshippers in prayer on the Temple Mount, the flashpoint site in Jerusalem that also houses the Al Aqsa Mosque, and called for “total victory” in Gaza. Now he was sitting with his fellow ministers to discuss how to bring to an end two years of hostilities that had reduced much of Gaza to a charred wasteland—but had left Hamas still standing.

At Netanyahu’s invitation, both Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s friend and special envoy, were in attendance

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