ALAMEIN, Egypt — More than 1,250 Palestinians have been killed since a ceasefire began in October 2025. The bombs did not stop.
On Saturday, Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law and personal envoy, sat across from Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s most senior political leader, at a meeting convened in the Egyptian coastal city of Alamein. The encounter, among the most direct contacts between an American figure and Hamas leadership since the conflict began in October 2023, lasted several hours and produced statements from both sides asserting progress.
It is not clear that progress exists.
Hamas said it had “fully adhered to the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.” Israel has resumed air strikes on Gaza, a fact Hamas cited as evidence of its own compliance and Israeli violation. In the same breath, Hamas called on mediators “to fulfil their responsibilities and compel the [Israeli] occupation to implement all its obligations in the first phase, end all violations.” The diplomatic phrasing masks a blunt accusation: the ceasefire Hamas signed is not the ceasefire Israel is honoring.
Kushner arrived in Alamein with a demand the Trump administration has not wavered on since entering office: Hamas must “relinquish governing authority and all weapons.” Stripped of diplomatic packaging, this is a demand for Hamas’s dissolution. It is the same position Hamas has publicly rejected, and the same logic that has made every previous round of second-phase negotiations collapse before they began.
What makes this encounter significant is not that it produced a breakthrough — it did not — but that it happened at all. The United States has formally designated Hamas a terrorist organisation since 1997. Kushner carries no formal government title. The talks proceeded under the auspices of the Board of Peace, a diplomatic vehicle designed to create legal separation between US-Hamas contact and the government that arranged for it. That architecture is deliberate.
The gathering in Alamein included Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, Qatari diplomat Ali Al Thawadi, a Turkish official, UN-affiliated Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Qatar has served as the primary mediating power in Gaza negotiations since October 2023. Egypt’s intelligence service has been the operational channel for every ceasefire agreement thus far.
Netanyahu rejected Trump’s Gaza roadmap last week, describing it as “unacceptable” without specifying which provisions he objected to. His national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has publicly called for killing 30 to 40 Palestinians in Gaza every night, reflecting how far the current Israeli government sits from any plan that envisions a governed Palestinian Gaza. Netanyahu’s coalition includes parties whose stated policy is annexation or the expulsion of the Palestinian population. The gap between what is being negotiated in Egypt and what Netanyahu’s government will accept is structural, not procedural.
The death toll since October 2023 stands at more than 73,300 Palestinians killed, according to Gaza health ministry figures that international humanitarian organizations treat as reliable minimum counts. Since the ceasefire began in October 2025, more than 1,250 more have been killed. The Gaza genocide did not pause for the Alamein meeting.
The second phase of the ceasefire agreement, the phase Kushner traveled to Alamein to advance, is supposed to produce a permanent end to hostilities, the release of remaining Israeli hostages, and a governance framework for Gaza after the war. That last element is where all three parties hold irreconcilable positions. The Trump administration says Hamas cannot govern Gaza. Hamas says it is the legitimate authority of Gaza. Netanyahu says the war does not end until Hamas does not exist. No amount of shuttle diplomacy between Alamein and Jerusalem changes that arithmetic.
Al Jazeera, which first reported the meeting details, noted that Kushner was set to meet Netanyahu in Israel following Saturday’s talks. TRT World reported that Hamas’s leadership moved from Egypt to Cairo for additional consultations with Egyptian officials.
The Iran-US ceasefire expiry on Monday adds a second front to Washington’s regional crisis in the same week Kushner is attempting to revive Gaza talks. Whether the Netanyahu meeting produces anything different from what every previous exchange has produced is the question that determines whether Saturday’s encounter meant anything at all.
The dead in Gaza are not waiting for an answer.
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