US-Hamas hold first direct talks in Cairo, Hamas pushes Israel for implementing ceasefire commitments
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "US-Hamas hold first direct talks in Cairo, Hamas pushes Israel for implementing ceasefire commitments")
People flee as smoke rises following an Israeli strike near a tent encampment sheltering people in Gaza Strip on March 25, 2026. Photograph: (AFP)
US and Hamas hold first direct talks in Cairo. Disarmament, ceasefire commitments, and Gaza reconstruction remain key points of contention.
US and Hamas held the first direct talks in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday night. According to a report by CNN, a delegation led by senior US advisor Aryeh Lightstone met Chief Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who was also joined by Nickolay Mladenov, the US-backed UN Secretary-General's High Representative for Gaza. During the negotiations, Al Haya pressed the need for Israel to implement phase one of the commitments, such as halting air strikes and letting more humanitarian aid, before discussing the next steps.
The US advisor had previously met the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before Tuesday's meeting, where he reportedly committed to implementing the commitments of phase one if Hamas agrees to complete disarmament. However, under the current U.S.-brokered 20-point peace plan, disarmament is officially the core component of phase two. Following this, there will be a deployment of an international force to Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the devastated territory, the establishment of a technocratic administration and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Hamas view the proposal as fundamentally unbalanced. A senior Hamas source said that the proposal “reduces the whole process to a single clause – disarmament – while other first phase obligations are postponed or marginalised.”
“The proposed paper reflects a major imbalance in the ordering of priorities: Israel’s security first, while Palestinians’ humanitarian, political, and administrative rights are postponed,” said the source as reported by CNN. According to the report, Mladenov was relaying Israeli demand, which said that it would return to war if Hamas did not disarm.
Israel has pulled back according to what the mediators call the “yellow line”, as decided in the 20-point peace proposal. Hamas and multiple international organisations have said that Israel is not holding up its end of the deal, since the brokering of the ceasefire. Hamas have carried out regular strikes which have resulted in the death of at least 765 people in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect in October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. But the US and Israeli side claim that phase two has begun since the return of the last hostage in January 2026, and now Hamas should agree to complete disarmament.
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