Hamas sources said on Sunday (August 16, 2026) that they expected to meet in Egypt with U.S. envoy Jared Kushner, as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to push forward a Gaza peace plan rejected by Israel.

Two weeks after Hamas publicly signed on to the latest phase of the deal, Mr. Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law and special envoy, flew to Egypt ahead of expected talks on Monday (August 17, 2026) 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.

Mr. Kushner met with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, as well as Nickolay Mladenov, the Gaza high representative in Mr. Trump’s “Board of Peace” set up to implement the deal, Cairo said.

Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya was also in Egypt, travelling late Saturday (August 15, 2026) to the Mediterranean city of El-Alamein in his first trip since taking over the Gaza-based Islamist movement last month.

A second Hamas source said that the United States had sought clarifications from the group on several points, including “genuine, rather than merely symbolic, collection, consolidation and storage of weapons, as well as Hamas’s 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 ceasefire declared by Mr. Trump, who hailed their agreement as a “major milestone”.

But Mr. Netanyahu, a longtime hawk who faces a tough re-election fight in October, said that Israel rejected the agreement and voiced scepticism that Hamas would actually give up its weapons.

Mr. Netanyahu expressed opposition to the plan even after he was assured by Mr. Mladenov that Israel would not need to pull troops out of the Gaza Strip until complete disarmament by Hamas.

The board had initially said Israel would start a phased withdrawal in tandem with Hamas’s disarmament.

The United States for years refused contact with Hamas, which it classifies as a terrorist organisation and which led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.

But the Trump administration has increasingly been comfortable with direct contact in hopes of ending the devastating conflict, negotiating the October ceasefire agreement that led to the release of remaining Israeli hostages.

There was no immediate confirmation of a meeting between Kushner and Hamas by the United States.

A Board of Peace official earlier said that Mr. Kushner and Mr. Mladenov hoped for “constructive conversations” with Netanyahu, and that “the United States and Israel agree on the end state, which is a demilitarised Hamas”.

Israel keeps up strikes

Mr. Kushner discussed the Gaza plan with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during a meeting that “emphasised the need for all parties to fulfill their obligations under the Gaza Strip ceasefire agreement”, according to presidential spokesperson Mohamed El-Shennawy.

Hamas’s Al-Hayaa met on Sunday (August 16, 2026) 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 ceasefire agreement.

Israel has resumed airstrikes in Gaza after a lull following Mr. Trump’s promotion of the peace plan, though the October ceasefire had never fully halted the violence in the Strip.

Several people were injured on Sunday (August 16, 2026) after Israeli aircraft targeted a house west of Nuseirat, said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defence agency, which serves as a rescue service under Hamas.

The Israeli military said it was responding to a threat by Islamic Jihad militants and that it tried to mitigate civilian casualties.

“The terrorists advanced terror attacks and were struck in precise aerial strikes to remove the threat,” it said.

Several others were injured after Israeli forces opened fire on tents housing displaced people west of Khan Yunis, where separately the body of a child, Suhail Shallouf, was recovered after he was killed by Israeli fire on Saturday (August 15, 2026), the civil defence agency said.

Israeli operations have killed at least 1,262 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, according to figures by Gaza’s health ministry, which is under Hamas. Its figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.

Published – August 16, 2026 10:28 pm IST

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (July 30, 2026) announced an agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas, calling it a critical step toward a new Palestinian government in Gaza.

There was no immediate statement from Hamas on the agreement, but Mr. Trump’s announcement came after sources familiar with the ongoing talks with mediators in Cairo told AFP that the Palestinian Islamist movement was progressing towards a deal involving the decommissioning of its weapons.

“Today, the Board of Peace reached a HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza. This is a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY,” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, saying disarmament would take place in “carefully structured phases.”

“As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbours,” he added, also thanking mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.

The thorny issue of Hamas’s disarmament has been one of the key sticking points in the advancement of the ceasefire deal that has been in place between Israel and the group in Gaza since October.

Despite the ceasefire, violence has continued in Gaza, with Israeli strikes killing at least four people, including two children on Thursday (July 30, 2026), according to health officials.

Cairo is set to host a meeting “soon” of the Gaza truce mediators, which also include the United States, Qatar and Turkey, state-linked Al-Qahera News reported early Friday (Juy 24, 2026) in Egypt.

The news outlet did not specify when the meeting would take place, but said that it would discuss implementing the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan, a roadmap for which Hamas and Palestinian factions have agreed to.

Under Mr. Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, the second phase of the ceasefire was to involve Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.

The plan also provides for a group of Palestinian technocrats, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), to assume day-to-day governance during Gaza’s transitional phase out of war.

Earlier Thursday (July 30, 2026), a Hamas source told AFP that the group was still in the process of making amendments to the proposal.

‘No exceptions’

Earlier, a diplomatic source told AFP: “We continue to advance the implementation roadmap that offers a balanced and pragmatic path forward, with all weapons decommissioned and a phased transition of responsibilities taking place to hand over full authority to the technocratic government.”

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly on the matter, said there would be “no exceptions for certain weapons or certain people. One authority, one law, one weapon”.

The roadmap, the source said, would create “a process for the elimination of all tunnels, depots of weapons and any weapons production facilities”.

“All weapons, heavy and light, will be under full control of the NCAG in coordination with and with the support of the ISF,” the source added, referring to the International Stabilisation Force, a fledgling body envisaged to comprise multinational troops operating under Mr. Trump’s Board of Peace.

The source said a verification mechanism would ensure compliance by each side.

A Hamas source familiar with the talks told AFP earlier that the movement is “awaiting the Israeli response to the amendments we recently submitted to the mediators”.

The source said the amendments concerned two articles in the roadmap presented by the Board of Peace.

Regarding the article concerning weapons, the Hamas source said that “some points were removed, and alternatives were proposed”.

An Israeli political source told AFP that the proposed deal does not “satisfactorily” address Israeli demands.

“Israel demands the complete disarmament of Hamas, including the removal of weapons from Gaza and full demilitarization of the Strip as a precondition for any process,” the source said.

The source also said that “the issue of Gaza did not come up at all” in the meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mr. Trump in Washington this week.

Published – July 31, 2026 05:47 am IST

‘Board of Peace’ plan has stalled and the group of technocrats — known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) — has remained outside Gaza.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Muslim worshippers perform Friday prayers during the holy month of Ramadan at Salah al-Din School, which has been converted into a shelter for displaced Palestinians amid the Israel–Hamas war, in Gaza City on February 20, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Donald Trump speaks during a Board of Peace meeting at the U.S. Institute of Peace, on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, in Washington.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the formation of a Gaza “board of peace,” a key phase two element of a U.S.-backed plan to end the war in the Palestine.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement