Hamas’s top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya arrived in Egypt on Sunday at the head of a delegation, the Palestinian movement said, set to engage in indirect talks with Israel for a hostage-prisoner exchange and a ceasefire in Gaza.
The meetings set to take place Monday in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh will be Hayya’s first since Israel targeted him and other Hamas leaders in strikes on Doha last month.
He broke his silence earlier on Sunday with a pre-recorded TV appearance that aired in Qatar, which had mediated successive rounds of talks along with Egypt and the United States.
The Palestinian movement said the delegation led by Hayya arrived in Egypt “to begin negotiations on mechanisms for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of occupation forces and a prisoner exchange”.
Both Hamas and Israel have responded positively to US President Donald Trump’s roadmap for an end to the fighting and the release of captives in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, though the details remain to be ironed out.
The Israeli delegation will depart for Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Trump has sent two emissaries to help finalise the deal: his special envoy Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Hayya had made no mention of the talks or a possible ceasefire in his address Sunday, in which he mourned his son and five others who were killed in the Doha strike.
Hamas’s top officials are believed to have survived the targeted strike on Doha, which killed six people and sparked a wave of criticism, along with a rebuke from US President Donald Trump and an apology to Qatar from Netanyahu.
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© Agence France-Presse
