Hamas representatives were expected to hold talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip, two Hamas officials told AFP.
The talks will also be focused on “halting Israeli violations,” one Hamas official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with the press.
According to the official, the terrorist group will stress the need for the Israel Defense Forces to withdraw from Gaza, fully reopen the Strip’s borders, increase the number of crossings and allow greater volumes of humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.
The Hamas delegation will also meet with representatives of other Palestinian terrorist organizations to discuss those issues, the second Hamas official told AFP.
On Thursday, the Israeli military eliminated two Palestinian terrorists who were planning “imminent” terror attacks against soldiers deployed in the Strip, the IDF said on Friday.
In southern Gaza, the IDF killed Mahmoud Barim, a terrorist in the Al-Mujahideen Brigades, the military arm of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, a group that splintered from Fatah. Barim “monitored IDF troop activity and possessed a large quantity of weapons,” according to the military.
In the northern Strip, the IDF struck Ahmed Mohammed Saleh, a Hamas Nukhba Force terrorist “who had carried out and advanced numerous terror attacks,” it said. Several additional Hamas terrorists were also hit in the strike.
Prior to the airstrikes, steps were taken to mitigate harm to noncombatants, “including the use of precise munitions and aerial surveillance,” per the statement.
On Saturday, an Israeli soldier was severely injured as a result of an operational accident in central Gaza, the army stated separately. The soldier was evacuated to a hospital and his family was notified.
The current truce went into effect in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 10, 2025, ending the two-year war that began when Hamas, other Palestinian terrorist groups and Gazan “civilians” invaded the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023. The terms of the ceasefire leave the IDF in control of approximately half of Gaza.
Top Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashaal and Musa Abu Marzouk, have rejected key parts of Trump’s plan in recent months, including disarmament, despite having agreed to the proposal in October.
“The resistance and its weapons are the ummah’s [Islamic nation’s] honor and pride,” Mashaal told an anti-Israel summit in Istanbul on Dec. 6.
“A thousand statements are not worth a single projectile of iron,” he said.
