The United States and Hamas held their first direct talks since the Gaza ceasefire as part of efforts to advance a fragile U.S.-brokered agreement, two Hamas officials said.
A delegation led by senior U.S. adviser Aryeh Lightstone met Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil al-Haya in Cairo on Tuesday night, sources said. Lightstone was joined by Nikolai Mladenov, the senior Gaza representative for the U.S.-backed Peace Committee, the officials said. Asked for comment by CNN, a State Department spokesperson said, “We do not comment on ongoing negotiations.”
Al Haya, who survived an assassination attempt by Israel in the Qatari capital Doha last September, pressed Lightstone that for Israel to move to the next phase, it needed to fully implement the commitments in the first phase of the deal, including a halt to strikes and increased humanitarian aid, the people said.
The ceasefire, brokered in October, ended two years of war in Gaza, even though it failed to answer substantive questions about the future of the devastated territory, including Hamas’ role in future security and governance. Hamas has reasserted control of the unoccupied Gaza Strip, and Israeli forces continue to carry out frequent attacks in the area.
Tuesday’s meeting came days after Mr. Lightstone met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure Israel’s commitment to fully implement its demands under the first phase of the ceasefire, U.S. sources and diplomats familiar with the talks said. One source said Israel has agreed to implement these requirements if Hamas commits to disarmament.
The meeting of Hamas, peace committee representatives and international mediators has sought to reach an agreement on the next steps in the ceasefire agreement: disarming Hamas, sending international forces to Gaza and withdrawing Israeli forces from the devastated territory.
But those talks have repeatedly stalled over demands that Hamas agree to disarm before Israel fulfills its Phase 1 commitments, sources said. Hamas and several international organizations active in Gaza have said Israel has not complied with its side of the agreement, a charge Israel denies, accusing Hamas of its own violations.
More than 765 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
A senior Hamas official said the militant group views the proposal as unbalanced and would “reduce the entire process to a single provision of disarmament, while other first-step obligations are postponed or marginalized.”
“The proposed text reflects a huge imbalance of priorities: Israeli security comes first, and the humanitarian, political and administrative rights of the Palestinian people take a backseat,” the official said.
The official said Mladenov conveyed Israel’s demands and warned that Israel would return to war if Hamas did not agree to disarm.
“It got to the point where Mr. Mladenov conveyed veiled threats of returning to war if the paper was not accepted,” the source said.
