Overview
- Hamas political chief Khalil al-Hayya has gone to Cairo for talks with Egypt’s intelligence chief to prepare for high-level mediation on the 15-point Board of Peace plan.
- U.S. envoy Jared Kushner is due to visit Israel and Egypt next week with Board representative Nickolay Mladenov to try to narrow gaps over how and when disarmament and Israeli withdrawal would proceed.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly rejected the plan, saying Israeli forces will not withdraw until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, and Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered troops to remain in occupied security zones on other fronts.
- Violence has continued during talks, with Gaza’s health authorities reporting recent Israeli fire that killed two people and wounded 14 and Palestinian officials saying more than 1,250 Gazans have died from Israeli fire since last October.
- The central impasse is sequencing and verification: negotiators want a clear, enforceable process for Hamas to hand over weapons to a Palestinian governing committee while Israel demands credible guarantees, and failure to agree risks stalling reconstruction and the return of services to Gaza civilians.