• As Trump holds talks on postwar Gaza, these are the big questions

A White House official said that “all aspects” of the Gaza situation were on the table for the talks involving Blair, Kushner and senior officials, including the hostage crisis and an increase in aid for Gaza, where the UN declared a famine last week.

Blair, 72, has a longstanding interest in the region and forged deep ties as special envoy for the Quartet on the Middle East — a grouping of the UN, EU, US and Russia to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process — from 2007 to 2015.

He has been in touch with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, and sources told the Axios news site that Blair attended the White House on the same day as Netanyahu last month and told the president that he had nominated him for the Nobel peace prize.

Binyamin Netanyahu and President Trump in the Oval Office in April

KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES

A child receives a hot meal in Gaza City on Wednesday

KHAMES ALREFI/ANADOLU /GETTY IMAGES

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) said that it “speaks to many different groups and organisations with postwar ‘plans’ for Gaza” but did not endorse any move to relocate Gazans. It added: “TBI’s work in the region, since its inception, has always been dedicated to building a better Gaza for Gazans. Tony Blair has worked for this since leaving office. It has never been about relocating Gazans, which is a proposal TBI has never authored, developed or endorsed.”

Blair told Politico last October that neither Israel nor Hamas should govern Gaza but that a third party authority should take over as part of a peace deal.

Netanyahu has called for a civilian authority to run Gaza but opposes any involvement of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank.

• Why is Israel attacking Gaza City? What new offensive aims to achieve

In February Trump floated the idea of the US taking ownership of Gaza and creating a beach resort but came under criticism for suggesting the removal of the Palestinian residents.

Witkoff revealed plans for the postwar Gaza meeting in a Fox News interview. He pushed expectations for an end to the conflict in Gaza to the end of the year.

“It is a very comprehensive plan we are putting together on the next day [in Gaza] and many people are going to see how robust it is and how well meaning it is and it reflects President Trump’s humanitarian motives here,” Witkoff said.

On Monday, Trump told reporters there could be a “conclusive ending” in Gaza in the next two to three weeks. He rowed back during his cabinet meeting on Tuesday, telling journalists: “There’s nothing conclusive. It’s been going on for a long time. You’re talking about, I guess … thousands of years it’s been going on for … But hopefully we’re gonna have things solved very quickly with regard to Gaza.”

Netanyahu meets Steve Witkoff in July

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Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday: “We think that we’re going to settle this one way or another, certainly before the end of this year.”

Asked about the meeting with Blair, a White House spokesman said: “President Trump has been clear that he wants the war to end, and he wants peace and prosperity for everyone in the region. The White House has nothing additional to share on the meeting at this time.”

Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, was asked what the plan was for a Palestinian state and said there would not be any after a meeting with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, in Washington.