In a bid to take the Gaza situation off the backburner where it has been for over a month as a result of the region being caught up in the US-Israeli war on Iran, Cairo invited a senior Hamas delegation for talks on possible next moves earlier this month.
Headed by number one Hamas negotiator Khalil Al-Hayyah, the Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo on 1 April for meetings with Egyptian and international officials. According to a government source the key objective was to “get some movement” on the Gaza front.
The source explained that for five consecutive weeks Gaza has been in a stalemate, especially when Israel closed the Rafah Crossing for over four weeks, causing a severe drop in the volume of humanitarian material allowed into the Strip and a decline in the number of Palestinians able to come out of Gaza for medical treatment or allowed to return to Gaza to be reunited with family members.
The source said that in meetings with Egyptian officials, the Hamas delegation had received “reassurances” that Cairo is keeping Gaza at the top of the agenda, despite the weight of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
He added that Egyptian officials shared with Hamas the ongoing negotiations that Egypt is conducting with Israel to increase the number of Palestinians who are allowed to go through the Rafah Crossing.
At the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Israel unilaterally closed the crossing. Late last month, it allowed it to be reopened but only allowed a very limited number of Palestinians to rejoin their families in Gaza and a somewhat higher number to leave Gaza for medical treatment either in Egypt or elsewhere.
According to the Egyptian official, Cairo is trying to increase the numbers on both sides. “For us, it is very important that we keep a very careful balance between the number of Palestinians allowed in and out of Gaza because we are fully aware that Israel will always try to get more Palestinians out,” he stated.
He added that Egypt is also committed to securing the details of the arrangements for the right to return of all Palestinians who exit Gaza for medical treatment. “It is not just a matter of getting people out, but also of making sure that when they need to go back, they are not faced with Israeli impediments,” the official said.
He explained that the process of getting badly wounded and critically ill Palestinians out for medical treatment is “really complicated”.
“It takes a lot of screening to decide priorities, and once the names of the patients are decided then there is much work to be done related to the screening of the companions of each case,” he said.
He added that there are “thousands of people who are desperately waiting for their turn to leave for medical treatment,” and there are “very long lists” of Palestinians anxiously waiting to go back to Gaza to be reunited with elderly parents or children.
While the process is technically operated by Egypt and Israel, with assistance from the European Union, Hamas is also a key partner.
“To date, Israel has been stalling on allowing the entry of the interim technocratic government that was assembled shortly before the war on Iran started,” the source said. He added that Israel has also been persistently declining to give access to a Palestinian Authority (PA) team to enter Gaza to manage civil affairs pending the entry of the technocratic government.
“In other words, Hamas is the only power that is still there on the ground to help manage civil matters,” he stated.
Meanwhile, a source who met with the Hamas delegation said that Al-Hayyah had shared his profound dismay over the continued Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement that was signed in Sharm El-Sheikh last October.
“This was not just with Egyptian officials but also with some international officials that the delegation met, including a team from the office of Nickolay Mladinov, who was appointed to lead the operations decided by the Board of Peace on Gaza,” he said.
The source said that the Hamas delegation had complained about the failure of all the mediators to get Israel to honour its commitments on the first phase of the ceasefire. He added that the Hamas delegation declined to consider moving on with talks about its disarmament before Israel implements its commitments according to the first phase of the peace plan.
Top among the commitments that Israel has failed to honour is respect for a total ceasefire. Since the war officially came to an end last October, Israel has not suspended its strikes on Gaza. On Monday alone, Israeli strikes killed over 10 Palestinian civilians after Israeli drones fired missiles near a refugee camp in Gaza.
An informed UN source said that since the signing of the plan to end the conflict in Gaza hardly a week has passed without Israel killing and wounding Palestinians.
“On average around 10 to 20 Palestinians are killed every week, and four times more are wounded, some heavily so,” he said.
“I am not factoring in those who actually die because of lack of food and medicine or because they are not allowed to leave for Egypt for desperately needed medical treatment. I am just talking about those who die because of the strikes,” he said.
He said that the Israeli strikes are adding to the “shocking damage” that Gaza inflicted on Gaza during its two-year genocidal war. He added that with the difficulties Israel is putting before an effective process of debris removal, every single new strike adds to the devastating situation.
Meanwhile, a European diplomatic source said that until the US-Israeli war on Iran comes to an end, it is hard to think that the situation will move in Gaza. “The US is not worried about Gaza now, and even when the war ends, whenever that might be, it would need to address the more pressing issue of the Israeli war on Lebanon,” he said.
He added that US President Donald Trump “is pretty much done with Gaza”.
“Trump said he had finished the war, and now it is up to the regional players to keep things moving in coordination with Israel,” the European diplomat added.
According to the Egyptian official, Cairo is planning to get more invested in bringing attention back to Gaza. He said that once the US-Israeli war on Iran ends, Cairo will be working hard to get the details of the peace plan fully implemented.
The Gaza ceasefire is a three-phase process. The first phase was supposed to secure a full end of hostilities, beginning with the Israeli military withdrawal, the free entry of humanitarian aid, unhindered medical eviction, the return of Palestinians to Gaza and a prisoner swap.
The second phase is designed to secure a long-term ceasefire, the completion of the prisoner swap and full Israeli military withdrawal. The third phase is dedicated to the reconstruction of Gaza.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 9 April, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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