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.
Mr. Kushner met with mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, as well as Nickolay Mladenov, the Gaza high representative in Mr. 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.
“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. Trump’s “Board of Peace” set up to implement the deal, Cairo said. 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”. Trump, who hailed their agreement as a “major milestone”.
But Mr. Mr. Its figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
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.
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. 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.
