Hamas officials in Cairo discuss Gaza escalation, transition to Trump plan’s stage 2

A Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Sunday to meet with Gaza mediators on the recent escalation of hostilities in the Strip, as both Israel and the Palestinian terror group continued to trade accusations of ceasefire violations.

Hamas on Sunday night confirmed the meeting, saying senior leaders Muhammad Darwish, Khaled Mashal, Khalil al-Hayya, Nizar Awdallah, Zaher Jabarin and Ghazi Hamed met with Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, a senior mediator for the truce.

They discussed “ways to urgently address, via mediators’ efforts with the various parties,” the issue of dozens of Hamas operatives holed up underground in Israeli-controlled Rafah, Hamas said in a statement. It added that contact with the operatives had been lost.

The statement came after Israel on Friday, in the wake of attacks on its troops, killed or captured 17 terror operatives who tried to flee a tunnel in eastern Rafah. On Saturday, Israel carried out deadly strikes across Gaza in response to an attack on troops in the Strip’s south. According to Israel, the strikes killed several Hamas commanders.

The Hamas statement also came after reports Saturday that the group had informed mediators that the ceasefire was over. Hamas, which denied the report, said in the statement Sunday that it remains committed to the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, “stressing the importance of ending the continuing Zionist violations… via a clear and specific mechanism sponsored and overseen by the mediators,” including the US, Qatar, and Turkey along with Egypt.

The mechanism would “report to mediators on any violations, so that necessary steps can be taken to spot them in immediately and prevent unilateral steps resulting in escalation,” said Hamas.

The first phase of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan formed the basis of Israel and Hamas’s October 9 truce-hostage deal.

In the next stage of the plan, Israel is meant to withdraw further from the so-called Yellow Line, alongside the establishment of a transitional authority to govern Gaza, the deployment of the multinational security force meant to take over from the Israeli military, the disarmament of Hamas, and the start of reconstruction.

Hamas has so far refused to agree on the matter of demilitarization. Israel insists the Strip must be demilitarized before Trump’s plan can advance.

Additionally, terrorists are still holding the bodies of three slain hostages: Dror Or, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak. All living and dead hostages were supposed to be returned to Israel under the ceasefire.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel will keep striking Hamas, as well as the Hezbollah terror group, over ceasefire violations.

“Hamas has not stopped violating [the ceasefire], and we are acting accordingly,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

“There were several attempts by them to infiltrate our territory beyond the Yellow Line and harm our soldiers. We thwarted these forcefully, and we responded and exacted a very heavy price,” he said. “Many terrorists were eliminated, and terrorists were also captured from the tunnels in Rafah.”

Netanyahu also pushed back on criticism that critical Israeli decisions on Gaza were going through Washington, calling it a “complete lie.”

Israel carried out a number of airstrikes in Gaza on Saturday after a Palestinian gunman opened fire on IDF troops in the Strip’s south. Similar attacks have killed several soldiers in recent weeks.

The strikes and clashes marked one of the most violent days in Gaza since the fragile ceasefire took effect on October 10, with both Israel and Hamas accusing the other side of breaking the truce’s terms.

According to Netanyahu’s office, five senior Hamas officials were killed in the strikes.

The IDF and Shin Bet on Sunday confirmed that one of those killed in a Gaza City strike was Alaa Hadidi, chief of supply in Hamas’s weapons manufacturing headquarter.

Hadidi was a “central source of knowledge” in the field of supply and weapons production, and during the war he worked to provide Hamas’s fighters with weapons, the military said.

In all, 21 people were killed, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defense agency, whose tolls are unverified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

In a reflection of the terror group’s apparent anger over the strikes, Hamas passed along messages to the US through Arab mediators that it was prepared to end the six-week-old ceasefire over what it called Israeli violations, an Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

But later on Saturday, Hamas spokesman Izzat al-Rishq denied reports that the terror group had announced an end to the truce. He said the group had asked the mediators of the agreement to intervene and compel Israel to uphold the ceasefire.

Lazar Berman and Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.