A high-level Hamas delegation is preparing to meet with Palestinian factions in Cairo to discuss a formal response to a disarmament proposal submitted by Gaza envoy Nickolay Mladenov, according to movement officials.
The proposal outlines the terms for transitioning into the second phase of a ceasefire agreement. It follows a written plan previously presented by the Trump administration’s “Peace Council,” which detailed a mechanism for stripping the resistance of all heavy and light weapons in exchange for pardons for some of its members.
The proposal has sharpened a dispute over Gaza’s postwar future and could determine whether talks move forward or slide back toward renewed war. Hamas and the factions say no discussion of disarmament can begin before Israel fully implements its obligations under the first phase of the agreement.
A senior Hamas official told Al Manassa that the movement’s negotiating delegation, led by Khalil Al-Hayya, is due back in Cairo within hours and is expected to meet Mladenov again after his return from Israel. The official said Mladenov traveled there to discuss issues raised in two earlier meetings in the Egyptian capital, one with Hamas and another with leaders of the resistance factions.
The official, who asked not to be named, said Mladenov’s paper calls for the resistance to surrender its weapons over as long as 150 days. That would include handing over weapons factories, heavy arms, and tunnel maps within three months, followed by a later phase covering personal weapons.
A faction leader told Al Manassa that Mladenov’s paper was completely unacceptable and represented a retreat from the ideas and principles agreed in the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement.
The source, who also asked not to be named, said the proposal offered the resistance factions no role, including in political activity, after the war ends.
The official, who was briefed on Mladenov’s recent meeting with faction leaders in Cairo, said the session saw sharp exchanges and included a threat from the Gaza envoy to set the enclave ablaze and restart the war once the US-Israeli assault on Iran ends. The official said Mladenov warned that Gaza would then face the war alone without support from the resistance axis.
Another Hamas official told Al Manassa that the current push to resume implementation of the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement, along with the talk of disarming Hamas and the resistance, is being driven by Israel. The official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was seeking a symbolic victory to market to the Israeli public after failing to secure any decisive gain in the war with Iran.
The source, who asked not to be named, said Netanyahu believed he could claim a formal victory by closing the Gaza file through a scenario in which Hamas and the resistance accepted disarmament.
The source said the factions had reaffirmed to Mladenov in Cairo that their position on the current phase remained unified: all terms of the first phase must be completed before any move to the next stage, none of which Israel has honored. As an example, the source pointed to the clause on daily aid deliveries to Gaza’s residents, saying the agreement had called for 600 trucks a day, while the number now entering the enclave does not exceed 150.
Aid deliveries into Gaza have averaged about 113 trucks a day in recent periods, compared with about 500 a day before the war, while international organizations say the territory needs no fewer than 600 trucks a day.
The source stressed that the resistance factions had agreed not to respond with either “yes” or “no” to the paper submitted by the Board of Peace despite renewed threats of war. “Mladenov will be told that nothing in the paper can be discussed before Israel is compelled to implement all the terms and obligations of the first phase in full, including the entry of about 200,000 prefabricated housing units,” the source said.
Trump’s plan, which Israel and Hamas agreed to in principle last October, calls for Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza and for reconstruction to begin in exchange for the movement’s disarmament.
The plan also sets out an eight-month timetable beginning with the National Committee for Administering Gaza, a US-backed Palestinian technocratic committee, taking responsibility for security in the enclave and ending with a full Israeli withdrawal upon the “final verification that Gaza is free of weapons.”
