Hamas sources said Sunday the group expected to meet with U.S. envoy Jared Kushner in Egypt as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to advance a Gaza peace plan that Israel has rejected.
Two weeks after Hamas publicly signed on to the latest phase of the deal, Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law and special envoy, flew to Egypt ahead of expected talks Monday in Jerusalem.
"Mediators informed Hamas that U.S. envoy Jared Kushner will hold a meeting with the Hamas leadership, in the presence of Egyptian and Qatari officials, before Kushner travels to Israel to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," a Hamas source told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya traveled late Saturday to the Egyptian Mediterranean city of el-Alamein in his first trip since taking over the Gaza-based movement last month.
A second Hamas source said that the United States had sought clarifications from Hamas on several points, including on "genuine, rather than merely symbolic, collection, consolidation and storage of weapons, as well as Hamas' complete relinquishment of governance of Gaza."
Hamas on July 30 said that it would hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing body as part of the latest stage in a Gaza cease-fire declared by Trump, who hailed their agreement as a "major milestone."
But Netanyahu, a longtime hawk who faces a tough re-election fight in October, said that Israel rejected the agreement and voiced skepticism about Hamas disarmament.
Netanyahu voiced opposition to the plan even after he was assured by Nickolay Mladenov, the Gaza high representative in Trump's "Board of Peace" set up to implement the deal, that Israel would not need to pull troops out of the Gaza Strip until complete disarmament by Hamas.
The board had initially said that Israel would start a phased withdrawal in tandem with Hamas' disarmament.
The United States for years refused contact with Hamas, but the Trump administration has increasingly established direct contact in hopes of ending Israel's genocidal war, negotiating the October cease-fire agreement that led to the release of remaining Israeli hostages.
The United States did not immediately confirm a meeting between Kushner and Hamas.
A Board of Peace official earlier said that Kushner and Mladenov hoped for "constructive conversations" with Netanyahu, and that "the United States and Israel agree on the end state, which is a demilitarised Hamas".
Kushner discussed the Gaza plan with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi during a meeting that "emphasized the need for all parties to fulfill their obligations under the Gaza Strip cease-fire agreement," according to presidential spokesperson Mohamed el-Shennawy.
Hamas's al-Hayaa met Sunday with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad and "reaffirmed commitment" to the Trump plan, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency said.
A Hamas official had told AFP the delegation would brief Egypt on Israeli violations of the cease-fire agreement.
Israel has resumed airstrikes in Gaza after a lull following Trump's promotion of the peace plan, though the October cease-fire had never fully halted the violence in the Strip.
Several people were injured Sunday after Israeli aircraft targeted a house west of Nuseirat, said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza's civil defense agency.
The Israeli military claimed it was responding to a threat by the Islamic Jihad group and that it tried to mitigate civilian casualties.
Several others were injured after Israeli forces opened fire on tents housing displaced people west of Khan Younis, where separately the body of a child, Suhail Shallouf, was recovered after he was killed by Israeli fire Saturday, the civil defense agency said.
Israeli operations have killed at least 1,262 Palestinians since the cease-fire came into effect on Oct. 10, according to figures by Gaza's Health Ministry.
The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.
