Hamas’s Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, has adopted a more hardline position on the issue of disarmament during discussions with senior Trump administration official Aryeh Lightstone, Kan News reported Monday, citing Israeli sources.
According to the report, Lightstone, who is also an adviser to US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, has held direct meetings with al-Hayya over the past several months.
Israeli officials were briefed on Lightstone’s contacts with the Hamas leader, and a source familiar with the discussions told Kan News the meetings formed part of a broader negotiating track led by Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for the Gaza Strip.
Israeli sources said the talks have again focused on a central sticking point: how to define heavy and light weapons under the Board of Peace’s framework for disarming Hamas and other terror organizations operating in Gaza.
A Board of Peace official told Kan News that the body had conducted “several rounds of negotiations” intended to produce an agreed roadmap for disarmament in the enclave.
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“We continue our diplomatic efforts to achieve this objective while finalizing measures related to governance, rule of law, security, reconstruction and economic development in Gaza,” the official said.
The second phase of Trump’s 20-point peace proposal calls for Gaza to undergo deradicalization and demilitarization, alongside the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to areas of the Strip currently controlled by the Israeli military.
Senior Hamas figures, including Khaled Mashaal and Musa Abu Marzouk, have in recent months rejected major elements of Trump’s plan, particularly the demand for disarmament, even though the group agreed to the proposal in October.
Mladenov told Reuters in April that the ongoing discussions with Hamas about disarmament had been “very serious” but “not easy.”
Asked about when a deal could be reached on implementation, the Board of Peace official told Reuters: “We have a matter of days, maximum a couple of weeks, that is my assessment, because otherwise we will lose the momentum of what we have, and then every decision will become even more difficult.”
