Talks scheduled for this week between Palestinian militant groups from Gaza and the diplomat leading the effort to implement US President Donald Trump's peace plan for the territory have been postponed.
Sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday the discussions that were to be held in Egypt's Mediterranean city of Alamein now look set to take place next week if mediators and the groups, led by Hamas, make sufficient progress on the thorny issue of surrendering their weapons.
The sources said the Egyptian, Turkish and Qatari mediators were meeting leaders of the Gaza-based groups in Egypt and in Turkey's capital Ankara to reach a compromise.
Nickolay Mladenov, the veteran Bulgarian diplomat who is chief envoy of the Board of Peace set up under Mr Trump's plan, has made the launch of its second phase conditional on militant groups in Gaza surrendering their weapons, including personal firearms, the sources said.
“He wanted the Alamein talks postponed to give the mediators time to persuade Hamas and others to modify their position on the question of disarmament,” said one source. “There's no guarantee that this will happen and the Palestinians may now be looking to see what they can get if Iran includes Gaza in any deal to end its war with the US.”
According to the sources, Hamas has been open to surrendering heavy weapons, such as missile batteries and machineguns, but wants to keep firearms. It contends that proceeding to the second phase of the Trump plan was never conditional on surrendering its weapons and is demanding that the terms of the first phase must be met, including the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza.
On the other hand, Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally close to Iran, is refusing to surrender its arms altogether and accuses Mr Mladenov of showing bias towards Israel, the sources said. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has taken a similarly hardline position, they added.
The mediators' efforts to get the peace plan back on track follow comments last week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he had ordered his military to expand its control of Gaza to 70 per cent and potentially more, a step the sources said could possibly lead to the resumption of hostilities in the Palestinian territory.
They also come at a time when the Gaza conflict is receiving little attention from the Trump administration, which is deeply distracted by negotiations to end the war it launched, alongside Israel, on Iran in February.
The Israeli military has killed more than 930 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect last October, raising the death toll in the enclave to almost 73,000 since the war began in October 2023.
Besides the ceasefire and the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, the first phase of the Trump plan involved Israel's military withdrawing behind a “yellow line” that left it in control of a little more than half of Gaza. But Israel now controls about 64 per cent of the Palestinian territory, according to maps presented by the military to aid agencies in March and April.
Hamas, the sources said, has also come to realise Israel will not stop assassinating its senior officials until it has killed everyone associated with planning or executing the October 7, 2023 attacks, in which an estimated 1,200 people were killed.
Prominent Hamas leaders killed since the war started include the group's political leader and chief negotiator Ismail Haniyeh and his successor Yahya Sinwar. Last month, Izz Al Haddad, Hamas’s leader in Gaza and its military chief, was killed in a strike on Gaza city. Last week, Israel said it had killed Mr Al Haddad's successor, Mohammed Awda.
The killings of Mr Al Haddad and Mr Awda are the latest in a series that has continued since the start of the Gaza war and has left Hamas stripped of several tiers of its military and political leadership.
