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A senior Hamas delegation led by the Palestinian group's political bureau chief, Khalil al-Hayya, arrived in Cairo Saturday evening for talks with Egyptian officials on consolidating the Gaza ceasefire, ahead of a planned visit to the region by U.S. presidential envoy Jared Kushner.
The trip came as at least one Palestinian was killed and seven others were wounded by Israeli fire in Gaza late Saturday.
Al-Hayya is due to meet Egyptian General Intelligence Service chief Hassan Rashad on Sunday morning, according to a Hamas source cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The visit marks al-Hayya's first trip to Egypt since he assumed leadership of Hamas in late July.
A Hamas source told Türkiye's state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) that "a high-level leadership delegation headed by the movement's leader, Khalil al-Hayya, will arrive tonight in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to hold talks with Egyptian officials."
The source said the delegation would discuss several issues and developments related to the Palestinian cause, foremost among them talks aimed at consolidating the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The delegation also includes Hamas Shura Council chief Mohammed Darwish, the movement's head abroad, Khaled Meshaal, Hamas's chief in the West Bank, Zaher Jabarin, and the head of its Arab and Islamic Relations Office, Basem Naim, according to the source.
A Hamas source told Al Arabiya English that a delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya is currently meeting with the head of Egyptian intelligence.
Kushner is set to visit Israel and Egypt next week in hopes of bridging gaps over a Gaza plan rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He will be accompanied by Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza of Trump's Board of Peace, which is tasked with implementing the deal.
The trip follows Netanyahu's public rejection of a 15-point plan announced by Mladenov, under which Hamas agreed to hand over its weapons to a new Palestinian governing committee in Gaza.
A Board of Peace official said Kushner and Mladenov hoped for "constructive conversations" on advancing Trump's broader peace plan, which began with the October 2025 declaration of a ceasefire that has reduced but not ended Israeli strikes in Gaza.
The latest phase of the Gaza plan, to which Hamas agreed in late July, would begin a phased Israeli withdrawal from much of the Strip, according to an initial version released by the Board of Peace.
Mladenov later said Israel would not need to withdraw troops until Hamas had fully disarmed.
Netanyahu has vowed no pullout and voiced skepticism that Hamas would disarm, saying the group should destroy its weapons in a verifiable way.
Hamas has insisted it is abiding by the deal.
"We continue to await pressure from the mediators and the US side on Netanyahu and his government to compel him to abide by the roadmap," Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP on Friday.
A Palestinian was killed and seven others injured by Israeli army fire in separate incidents across Gaza late Saturday as Israeli airstrikes, artillery shelling and demolitions continued in different parts of the enclave.
A source at Al-Awda Hospital told AA that Mohammed Bashir Abu Armana was killed after being shot by Israeli forces on 20th Street in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. In the southern city of Khan Younis, two people wounded by Israeli gunfire were taken to Nasser Hospital following separate incidents near the Jordanian Hospital in the Khan Younis refugee camp and the Abu Hamid roundabout, medical sources told AA.
Witnesses said Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes while artillery shelling and heavy gunfire targeted central Khan Younis, with strikes also hitting evacuated homes in the Jorat al-Lot area south of the city.
In Gaza City, medical sources said two wounded Palestinians arrived at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital after Israeli military vehicles opened fire in the Daloul area of the Zeitoun neighborhood.
Israeli military vehicles also opened heavy fire east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Three Palestinians were injured earlier Saturday in an Israeli strike targeting a motorcycle in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Israeli forces also carried out extensive demolitions in areas under their control in Rafah in southern Gaza and east of Gaza City.
Israeli violations since the ceasefire took effect last October have killed 1,260 Palestinians and injured 4,154 others, according to Palestinian authorities.
Israel has continued a military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.
Palestinian authorities say more than 73,000 people have been killed and over 174,000 injured, most of them women and children, while 90% of the enclave's infrastructure has been destroyed.
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