A senior Hamas delegation led by Khalil Al-Hayya arrived in Cairo on Sunday for high-stakes talks with Egyptian intelligence officials on the latest escalation in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, according to unnamed sources cited by Al-Arabiya.
The visit, which had been scheduled earlier, now takes on renewed urgency amid intensified Israeli attacks and rising political tension.
Twenty-four Palestinians were killed late Saturday in a wave of Israeli air raids targeting central and northern Gaza, a source in the Palestinian Health Ministry told Al Manassa.
Al-Hayya’s delegation is reportedly expected to meet mediators in Cairo to discuss field developments and the next phase of the ceasefire agreement. Sources said the visit was prearranged, but will now include discussions on Israel’s renewed escalation.
The US administration had abruptly postponed a planned meeting between its Middle East envoy Steve Wittkoff and Al-Hayya in Istanbul last Wednesday, a Hamas official confirmed to Al Manassa on Saturday.
The official, who requested anonymity, said Wittkoff was due to meet Al-Hayya as part of a scheduled visit to Turkey before the entire trip was postponed. Turkish officials informed Hamas of the delay, which was intended to discuss what parties refer to as “the day after” in Gaza.
On Saturday, the Israeli occupation army claimed that its forces came under fire from a Palestinian man who crossed the so‑called “yellow line,” the buffer separating occupation positions from residential areas, before soldiers shot him dead.
The army’s spokesperson Avichay Adraee alleged the man crossed in a vehicle using a route designated for humanitarian purposes and opened fire at an occupation post. Israel framed the incident as a breach of the Sharm El-Sheikh “peace” agreement, despite no casualties reported among its forces.
Moments after these claims, Israeli warplanes struck a car west of Gaza City’s Al-Rimal neighborhood, killing five Palestinians, including Alaa Al-Hadidi, a senior commander in the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, according to his family who spoke with Al Manassa.
Al-Hadidi was traveling in a civilian vehicle when occupation forces directly targeted it. Dozens of bystanders were injured, a source confirmed to Al Manassa.
Five more Palestinians were killed when occupation aircraft bombed an apartment in Al-Nasr neighborhood in northern Gaza. A witness told Al Manassa that Israel struck the home without warning, killing a man from the Al-Khodary family, his son, two grandchildren and a young man.
A medical source at Al-Shifa Hospital said some bodies arrived burned beyond recognition, while others arrived in pieces. Many of the wounded were children.
Simultaneously, Israeli warplanes struck a home west of Deir Al-Balah, killing four Palestinians and injuring others who were transferred to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Al-Awda Hospital in Al-Maghazi camp received ten additional bodies and dozens of injured after two separate Israeli strikes—one on a home beside the hospital and another south of the camp.
In Gaza City, Israeli forces detonated an explosive‑laden robot in Al‑Tuffah neighborhood shortly after midnight Sunday, causing a massive blast that damaged displacement tents west of the yellow line. Witnesses described to Al Manassa the explosion as “strong enough to shake surrounding streets.”
Hamas political bureau member Izzat Al-Rishq called on mediators—Egypt, Qatar and Turkey—as well as the United States to pressure Israel to disclose the identity of the gunman it claims Hamas sent.
He accused Israel of “fabricating pretexts” to derail the ceasefire and return to what he described as a systematic campaign of genocide. “Israel violates the agreement daily and methodically,” he said.
The Israeli occupation army also announced Saturday that it killed and arrested 17 Palestinian resistance fighters in Rafah within 24 hours, claiming they emerged from an underground tunnel in an area under full Israeli control.
Earlier, Israeli forces killed two resistance fighters and arrested a third after a Nahal Brigade unit attacked tunnel infrastructure. Israel said the six detainees were transferred to the Shin Bet for interrogation and confirmed its forces remain deployed in Rafah under the ceasefire framework while continuing to destroy resistance tunnels.
During his meeting Saturday with British National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Saturday urged, once more, the rapid formation of an international stabilization force for Gaza, according to a ministry statement.
Abdelatty stressed the need to fully implement the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement, launch early recovery and reconstruction, ensure unobstructed humanitarian aid, and secure coordinated international pressure to enforce the UN Security Council resolution on Gaza.
Under the ceasefire agreement, the second phase of negotiations on managing Gaza and discussing the disarmament of the resistance is set to begin once the remaining three bodies of Israeli captives, still under Israeli-made rubble in Gaza, are returned.
In late October, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel aims to forcibly disarm Hamas and turn Gaza into a demilitarized zone. He added that Tel Aviv is working with Washington on a plan to “reshape” the territory, while Hamas reiterated that disarmament is a complex national issue requiring broad Palestinian consensus.
