Hamas leader in Gaza Khalil al-Hayya has taken a tougher line on disarmament in talks with senior Trump administration official Aryeh Lightstone in recent months, Kan News reported on Monday, citing Israeli sources.
Lightstone, who also serves as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, has been holding direct talks with al-Hayya, according to the report.
Jerusalem was updated on Lightstone’s meetings with al-Hayya, and a source familiar with the matter told Kan News they were part of negotiations led by Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for the Gaza Strip.
According to Israeli sources, the negotiations have circled back to the question of what would qualify as heavy and light weapons under the Board of Peace’s plan to disarm Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza.
A Board of Peace official told Kan News that the organization “held several rounds of negotiations aimed at agreeing on a roadmap for disarmament in Gaza.”
“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,” they added.
Under the second phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, Gaza is to be deradicalized and demilitarized, with the deployment of an International Stabilization Force to parts of the Strip currently held by the Israeli military.
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.
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.”
