A senior Hamas official said the movement’s delegation, which arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, is not there to hold new negotiations on the roadmap for moving to the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan.
The source, who requested anonymity, told Al Manassa that the delegation’s sole mission is to deliver Hamas and the Palestinian factions’ response to the latest amendments proposed by Peace Council Executive Director Nikolay Mladenov.
Trump’s plan, agreed between Israel and Hamas, calls for Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza and reconstruction to begin in exchange for the movement’s disarmament. It also sets an eight-month timeline beginning with a US-backed Palestinian technocratic National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) assuming responsibility for security in the enclave and ending with a full Israeli withdrawal after the “final verification that Gaza is free of weapons.”
The response will help determine whether mediators can move the talks toward the plan's second phase, with Article 8 on resistance weapons remaining the main obstacle.
The source said the composition of the delegation, led by Zaher Jabarin, a member of Hamas’ leadership council, rather than chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, underscores that it was not sent to negotiate. The response delivered to mediators in Cairo includes revised language responding to Mladenov’s latest draft of Article 8, he said.
Article 8 remains the main sticking point in the draft under discussion in Cairo. It addresses weapons held by the resistance in Gaza, their relationship to the deployment of a stabilization force, the entry of NCAG, and the phased Israeli withdrawal.
The source said Hamas and the factions explicitly rejected Mladenov’s latest wording because, in their view, it encompasses all forms of resistance and undermines what he described as “a legitimate right guaranteed under international treaties and conventions,” referring to the right of peoples under occupation to resist.
According to the source, Mladenov rejected the wording proposed by the Palestinian factions despite agreeing to remove the term “resistance infrastructure.” He then submitted a new version replacing the term with a detailed list defining the assets and means used by the resistance.
The list includes tunnels, four-wheel-drive vehicles, warehouses, open sites where resistance members could gather or conduct training, as well as small arms, military uniforms or clothing resembling military attire, and medical units or field hospitals, all of which the draft classifies as means used by the resistance, the source said.
Separately, Hamas official Taher Al-Nunu announced Tuesday that a delegation led by Zaher Jabarin, the movement’s leader in the occupied West Bank, had arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials and mediators on advancing implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
In a Hamas statement, Al-Nunu said the delegation would meet Egyptian officials and mediators to advance implementation of the ceasefire agreement. He said priorities include halting escalating Israeli violations in Gaza, including daily killings and assassinations, ensuring Israel allows all essential supplies into the enclave, including materials to repair hospitals, bakeries, and infrastructure, and implementing the remaining provisions of the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement.
He added that the round of talks would also cover the roadmap prepared by Nikolay Mladenov, in cooperation with the mediators, for the agreement’s second phase, including the deployment of the administrative committee and international protection forces, leading to a full Israeli withdrawal from all Gaza territory.
“We are serious about reaching an agreement that ends our people’s suffering, stops the occupation’s crimes, and advances the restoration of our people’s political rights, foremost among them freedom and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” he said.
The developments come after Hamas said last month that the Palestinian factions and political forces had submitted their official response to Mladenov’s roadmap, reaffirming their commitment to fully implementing the ceasefire agreement, ending all military operations, reopening border crossings, beginning reconstruction, and enabling NCAG to assume its responsibilities.
