Nizar Awadallah: ‘Hidden Key’ in the Gaza Negotiations

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, right, greets Nizar Awadallah, a member of the Hamas leadership council, during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, right, greets Nizar Awadallah, a member of the Hamas leadership council, during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
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Nizar Awadallah: ‘Hidden Key’ in the Gaza Negotiations

In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, right, greets Nizar Awadallah, a member of the Hamas leadership council, during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, right, greets Nizar Awadallah, a member of the Hamas leadership council, during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

As Hamas released a new batch of Israeli captives on Saturday, sources within and close to the movement revealed that a senior leader played a crucial yet largely unseen role in the negotiations that led to the prisoner exchange deal and the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

According to these sources, Nizar Awadallah was the “hidden key” in the Gaza talks, particularly as the process moved into its second phase with Israel.

Awadallah, a senior Hamas leader, was one of the most influential figures in managing the negotiations. His role was pivotal in identifying critical gaps in the talks and addressing them before they could become obstacles. While he did not participate directly in all meetings with mediators, he frequently engaged in internal discussions with the Hamas leadership, ensuring that the negotiating team avoided strategic missteps.

Currently, Awadallah is outside Gaza, having left shortly before the recent war along with other senior Hamas political bureau members. Sources indicated that he played a key role in extensive meetings with Hamas’ political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, before the latter was assassinated in Tehran last year.

Awadallah was reportedly cautious about Israel’s commitment to agreements, often advocating for stricter conditions that would compel Tel Aviv to comply. He pushed for a more stringent approach to the prisoner exchange mechanism, seeking to ensure that Hamas would not be left vulnerable to Israeli maneuvering.

While sources stopped short of calling him the “planner” of the current ceasefire and exchange deal, they emphasized his significant role alongside other key Hamas figures.

Awadallah was instrumental in past negotiations, particularly in the 2006 capture and subsequent 2011 prisoner exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. A year after the exchange, Israeli media identified him as one of its mastermind, alongside Ahmad al-Jaabari, the slain commander of Hamas’ military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades.

Beyond negotiations with Israel, Awadallah also played a crucial role in talks between Hamas and Fatah aimed at Palestinian national reconciliation. He was involved in multiple rounds of discussions hosted by various countries.

He briefly led Hamas’ political bureau in Gaza between late 2004 and early 2007, a period marked by intense political and military challenges. It was during this time that Hamas took control of Gaza by force, captured Shalit, and faced international isolation after forming the Palestinian government in 2006—only to be swiftly dismissed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Awadallah is considered part of Hamas’ founding generation, closely associated with the movement’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, as well as senior figures like Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. He was deeply involved in shaping Hamas’ early strategies and political direction.

During the latest war in Gaza, Awadallah suffered a loss when his eldest son, Ubaida, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.



Things to Know About the UN Special Rapporteur Sanctioned by the US

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
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Things to Know About the UN Special Rapporteur Sanctioned by the US

Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)
Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, talks to the media during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, July 11, 2023. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, File)

A UN special rapporteur was sanctioned by the United States over her work as an independent investigator scrutinizing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, a high-profile role in a network of experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Francesca Albanese is among the experts chosen by the 47-member council in Geneva. They report to the body as a means of monitoring human rights records in various countries and the global observance of specific rights.

Special rapporteurs don't represent the UN and have no formal authority. Still, their reports can step up pressure on countries, while their findings inform prosecutors at the International Criminal Court and other venues working on transnational justice cases.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement announcing sanctions against Albanese on Wednesday that she “has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.”

Albanese said Thursday that she believed the sanctions were “calculated to weaken my mission.” She said at a news conference in Slovenia that “I’ll continue to do what I have to do.”

She questioned why she had been sanctioned — “for having exposed a genocide? For having denounced the system? They never challenged me on the facts.”

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called for a “prompt reversal” of the US sanctions. He added that “even in face of fierce disagreement, UN member states should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures.”

Prominent expert

Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer, has developed an unusually high profile as the special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, a post she has held since May 2022.

Last week, she named several large US companies among those aiding Israel as it fights a war with Hamas in Gaza, saying her report “shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many.”

Israel has long had a rocky relationship with the Human Rights Council, Albanese and previous rapporteurs, accusing them of bias. It has refused to cooperate with a special “Commission of Inquiry” established following a 2021 conflict with Hamas.

Albanese has been vocal about what she describes as a genocide by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel and the US, which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied the accusation.

‘Nothing justifies what Israel is doing’

In recent weeks, Albanese issued a series of letters urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip. She also has been a strong supporter of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allegations of war crimes.

Albanese said at a news conference last year that she has “always been attacked since the very beginning of my mandate,” adding that criticism wouldn't force her to step down.

“It just infuriates me, it pisses me off, of course it does, but then it creates even more pressure not to step back,” she said. “Human rights work is first and foremost amplifying the voice of people who are not heard.”

She added that “of course, one condemned Hamas — how not to condemn Hamas? But at the same time, nothing justifies what Israel is doing.”

Albanese became an affiliate scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University in 2015, and has taught and lectured in recent years at various universities in Europe and the Middle East. She also has written publications and opinions on Palestinian issues.

Albanese worked between 2003 and 2013 with arms of the UN, including the legal affairs department of the UN Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, and the UN human rights office, according to her biography on the Georgetown website.

She was in Washington between 2013 and 2015 and worked for an American nongovernmental organization, Project Concern International, as an adviser on protection issues during an Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Member of a small group

Albanese is one of 14 current council-appointed experts on specific countries and territories.

Special rapporteurs, who document rights violations and abuses, usually have renewable mandates of one year and generally work without the support of the country under investigation. There are rapporteurs for Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Russia and Syria.

There also are three country-specific “independent experts,” a role more focused on technical assistance, for the Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia.

Additionally, there are several dozen “thematic mandates,” which task experts or working groups to analyze phenomena related to particular human rights. Those include special rapporteurs on “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” the human rights of migrants, the elimination of discrimination against people affected by leprosy and the sale, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children.