By Emily Rose and Steve Holland
JERUSALEM, Jan 24 (Reuters) – U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Israel on Saturday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly to discuss Gaza, two people briefed on the matter said, as local authorities reported further violence in the enclave.
The U.S. on Thursday announced plans for a “New Gaza” rebuilt from scratch, to include residential towers, data centres and seaside resorts.
The project forms part of President Donald Trump’s push to advance an October ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas that has been shaken by repeated violations.
LOCAL AUTHORITIES REPORT MORE DEATHS
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that Israeli fire had killed three people, including two children, in two separate incidents in the northern Gaza Strip.
Since the beginning of the war, the death toll in Gaza now stands at 71,654 people, with 481 deaths since the October ceasefire, according to Health Ministry data.
A spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed that the meeting was planned but did not provide further details.
Gaza has been reduced to rubble in the war that was triggered by an attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the U.S. to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah border crossing – effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there – would open next week.
Israel wants to restrict the number of Palestinians entering Gaza through the border crossing with Egypt to ensure that more are allowed out than in, three sources briefed on the matter said ahead of the border’s expected opening.
The border was supposed to have opened during the initial phase of Trump’s plan to end the war.
Earlier this month, Washington announced that the plan had now moved into the second phase, under which Israel is expected to withdraw troops further from Gaza, and Hamas is due to yield control of the territory’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)
