Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya attended alongside Egyptian intelligence head Hassan Rashad, Qatari diplomat Ali al-Thawadi and an unnamed senior Turkish official.
US Vice President JD Vance (L) and Jared Kushner watch as U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Institute of Peace on February 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)Getty Images
Kushner was said to have told al-Hayya there was no room for negotiation on disarmament.
He warned that “the bar is high” because Israel does not trust Hamas to lay down its weapons, the source said.
The Hamas leader claimed they were ready to cede power and not interfere once the Palestinian technocratic National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) begins operating, according to the source.
If Hamas begins disarming, Israel’s “corresponding steps” would include allowing the International Stabilization Force to deploy in Gaza, enabling reconstruction to begin in the Rafah area and discussing the initial withdrawal of troops, the source said.
Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, is due to meet Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday.
Netanyahu has rejected the Board of Peace’s 15-point roadmap for implementing Trump’s Gaza plan, objecting to its provisions linking an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip to the phased decommissioning of Hamas and other terrorist groups’ weapons.
The premier has insisted that Jerusalem will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed, calling for “real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament.”
On Saturday, violence on the Gaza front escalated after an IDF tank drove over an explosive charge planted by Hamas in the southern Strip. There were no injuries in the incident, which took place during Givati Infantry Brigade operations in the “Yellow Line area,” the military said. No further details were provided.
In a separate incident the same day, Israeli troops killed a pair of terrorists in Gaza who crossed the Yellow Line in an attempt to sabotage IDF equipment, the army said.
The soldiers opened fire and eliminated the threat, said the IDF, which labeled it a “grave” violation of the ceasefire terms.
On Thursday, the IDF targeted and killed Hudhaifa Khaled Suleiman Qawari, a company commander in the Khan Yunis Brigade of Hamas’s “military” wing.
