A senior official for Gaza on President Trump’s “Board of Peace” met with a top Hamas leader last week and pressed the militant group on the issue of disarmament, according to two officials briefed on the encounter, amid concern that Israel may return to war.
The direct talks between Nickolay Mladenov, a former United Nations envoy serving as the board’s “high representative” for Gaza, and Khalil al-Hayya, the chief Hamas negotiator, underscored that the group remains a key actor in Gaza’s postwar transition.
The board, a new international body with a mandate to secure peace in conflict zones, is set to have its inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday.
Officials from the board are finalizing a demilitarization plan that they hope will be acceptable to both Israel and Hamas, allowing the group to keep some small arms, at least initially.
Yet Mr. al-Hayya refused to discuss demilitarization with Mr. Mladenov, the officials said, during their meeting in Cairo. It was unclear why he did not engage on the subject. In an interview with Al Jazeera that aired on Dec. 10, Khaled Meshal, a Qatar-based Hamas leader, said that to take away weapons from Palestinians was to take away their soul.
Mr. Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which paved the way for the October cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, calls on the group to give up its weapons, but members of its leadership have not publicly agreed to that demand.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that if Hamas failed to give up its weapons, Israel would refuse to move to the next phase of the cease-fire. That phase is widely expected to involve Israel further withdrawing its forces from Gaza and facilitating efforts for reconstruction in the territory.
“Hamas must first be disarmed and then Gaza must be demilitarized,” Mr. Netanyahu told a conference in Jerusalem, adding that the group still holds 60,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Yossi Fuchs, the Israeli government’s cabinet secretary, said on Monday that if Hamas does not disarm, the military will need to return to “complete the mission” in Gaza.
In the past, talks between Hamas and the United States have mostly been conducted through Qatari and Egyptian mediators. The direct talks suggest that Board of Peace officials are urgently pushing for a breakthrough on demilitarization.
A representative for Mr. Mladenov did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Hamas’s media office.
Mr. Mladenov was asked on Friday about demilitarization while speaking at the Munich Security Conference and said, “The reality is that all of this needs to move very fast.” He went on to say there was a risk the cease-fire could collapse, leading to a return to war.
For Hamas, armed struggle against Israel is a core part of its ideology, and even discussing demilitarization has caused fissures among the group.
Despite the apparent deadlock, Mr. Trump has projected optimism about the Board of Peace’s efforts in Gaza. Writing on social media on Sunday, he said that member states had pledged more than $5 billion toward “Humanitarian and Reconstruction efforts” and committed thousands of troops “to maintain Security and Peace for Gazans.”
Senior officials from board member states are expected to announce pledges at the inaugural meeting later this week and discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
More than 20 countries have so far joined the board.
Some European countries have expressed reservations about the board’s mandate, which extends to conflicts beyond Gaza, and U.S. allies including the United Kingdom and Germany have declined an invitation to join.
Analysts have cautioned that the president may be attempting to establish a rival to the United Nations, with himself at the helm.
Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
Natan Odenheimer is a Times reporter in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
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