عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Hamas Considers Temporarily Suspending Ceasefire Negotiations

Mourners attend the funeral of Azzam Al-Hayya, the son of Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' chief negotiator in US-mediated talks over Gaza's future, in Gaza City May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Mourners attend the funeral of Azzam Al-Hayya, the son of Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' chief negotiator in US-mediated talks over Gaza's future, in Gaza City May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
TT
TT

Hamas Considers Temporarily Suspending Ceasefire Negotiations

Mourners attend the funeral of Azzam Al-Hayya, the son of Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' chief negotiator in US-mediated talks over Gaza's future, in Gaza City May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Mourners attend the funeral of Azzam Al-Hayya, the son of Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas' chief negotiator in US-mediated talks over Gaza's future, in Gaza City May 7, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Two Hamas sources told Asharq Al-Awsat the group’s leadership is weighing a temporary suspension of negotiations, citing what one source called “Israel’s lack of seriousness” in taking any steps to stop “its crimes and daily killings in Gaza.”

Talks on the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which took effect last October, are facing fresh complications.

Israel and Hamas remain at odds over how to implement the first-phase terms demanded by Hamas, including humanitarian commitments, and the second phase, which Israel is pressing to activate, especially the clause on “disarming” Gaza.

Israel has stepped up assassinations in Gaza after three days of relative calm requested by mediators, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, and a US official from envoy Jared Kushner’s team.

People scramble to receive a warm meal at the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 7, 2026. (Photo by Eyad Baba / AFP)

Hamas said Thursday that Azzam al-Hayya, son of its chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, had died of wounds sustained in an Israeli attack that targeted him and others in Gaza City on Wednesday evening.

The attack also killed Hamza al-Sharbasi, a field commander in the elite unit of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, in the Shujaiya neighborhood.

Israeli strikes after noon Thursday killed three members of Hamas’ Internal Security Service at the entrance to its headquarters west of Gaza City.

Hamas said in a statement that the killing of Azzam al-Hayya was a failed attempt by Israel to influence the negotiating team and win political concessions.

Azzam’s death means Khalil al-Hayya has lost four sons in separate incidents. Among them was Hammam, Azzam’s twin, who was killed in a strike that targeted his father and several Hamas leaders while they were in Doha in September 2025.

‘The option is on the table, but it is not a response’

The two Hamas sources, both based outside the Palestinian territories, said the group had not made a final decision to suspend talks.

But one said “the option is now strongly on the table,” citing what he described as the mediators’ clear inability, including Mladenov and the US, to force Israel to stop daily violations that he said had killed about 1,000 Palestinians since the ceasefire began last October.

In separate comments, the sources rejected the idea that the possible suspension was a response to the killing of Khalil al-Hayya’s son.

They said the proposal had already been under discussion by the delegation, but had been delayed at the request of mediators and following consultations with factions.

“With the return of intensive assassinations and killings in this manner, it is back on the table again,” one source said.

Children sift through rubbish at the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 7, 2026. (Photo by Eyad Baba / AFP)

Sources from Palestinian factions said the killing of al-Hayya’s son would, in any case, automatically pause negotiation contacts because of a mourning period expected to last at least three days.

Despite earlier “positive” signals about progress, Palestinian factions have not received a response following Mladenov’s visit to Israel and his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday.

Mladenov left Cairo last Friday for Israel to seek a response to understandings reached in Egypt’s negotiations with Hamas.

He met Netanyahu and described the meeting as “a positive and substantive discussion on the way forward to ensure the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.”

Mladenov’s delayed response

Asharq Al-Awsat learned that Mladenov left Israel on Wednesday evening for his office in Dubai, although he had been expected in Egypt last Tuesday.

A Hamas source inside Gaza accused the Board of Peace representative of “aligning with Israeli conditions instead of being neutral.”

“What the negotiating delegation hears about ‘positivity’ from Mladenov or some US officials who took part in the meetings was expected to be followed by them compelling Israel or bringing positive responses from it,” the source said. But that did not happen, according to the source.

In an interview with Israel’s i24NEWS, Mladenov reiterated the Board of Peace’s position that Gaza’s reconstruction and Israel’s withdrawal from the strip are essentially tied to full disarmament.

He warned against linking Gaza to geopolitical developments in Iran or Lebanon, calling such voices “irresponsible” toward two million people living in tragic conditions.

Trump’s Gaza plan, accepted by Israel and Hamas, calls for Israeli forces to withdraw from Gaza, reconstruction to begin and Hamas to give up its weapons. But “disarmament” remains a major sticking point in talks to implement the plan and cement the ceasefire.

Senior Hamas sources say the group has told Mladenov it will not enter serious talks on implementing the second phase before Israel meets its first-phase obligations, including a complete halt to attacks.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Houthi Casualties Strain Sanaa Hospitals’ Capacity

Houthis use images of their dead to recruit more fighters (X)
Houthis use images of their dead to recruit more fighters (X)
TT
TT

Houthi Casualties Strain Sanaa Hospitals’ Capacity

Houthis use images of their dead to recruit more fighters (X)
Houthis use images of their dead to recruit more fighters (X)

The fallout from the Houthis’ military escalation in Yemen is straining hospitals and endangering civilians in areas under the group’s control, while fueling rare criticism from within its own ranks.

Activists and former fighters accuse the group of exploiting poverty to recruit young men, trading on fighters’ blood and diverting resources to the war effort at the expense of civilian needs.

Medical sources in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group’s Health Ministry had recently ordered several government hospitals to limit admissions of critically ill patients.

Intensive care units, emergency departments and other wards have instead been reserved for wounded Houthi fighters arriving from the front lines.

The measures cover Al-Thawra, Al-Jumhouri, Police, Military, Al-Quds, 48 and Kuwait hospitals — among the capital’s leading medical facilities. Their capacity to treat civilians has consequently shrunk, particularly for patients needing urgent care or intensive treatment.

The restrictions coincided with the arrival in Sanaa of large numbers of dead and wounded Houthi fighters following battles on several fronts across Yemen.

Health workers said hospitals were taking in growing numbers of casualties and setting aside beds, equipment and wards for those arriving from combat zones, including fighters requiring surgery or intensive care.

Hospitals under strain

The Houthis have tightened security around several medical facilities, barred media access and withheld information about the identities and conditions of casualties arriving from the front lines.

Health workers said the influx of wounded fighters had pushed hospitals closer to capacity, leaving less room for civilian patients.

Ahmed, whose relative needed treatment in Sanaa, said his family struggled to obtain the necessary care at Al-Jumhouri Hospital and was forced to look elsewhere because the facility lacked the resources to treat the patient.

He accused the Houthis of channeling available medical resources into the war effort, warning that civilians — particularly children, older people, chronically ill patients and emergency cases — faced growing risks.

The measures come as the health system in Houthi-held areas reels from years of war, dwindling funding and severe shortages of medicine, supplies and medical staff. Health facilities have also been damaged, forcing some to close.

The strain extends beyond Sanaa. The capital’s main hospitals routinely receive referrals from other provinces and regions, meaning their reduced capacity affects a far wider population under Houthi control.

Dissent from within

As the escalation weighs on the health sector, criticism is also mounting among figures and activists aligned with the Houthis.

Their complaints center on the war’s human cost, the treatment of fighters and the families of those killed or wounded, and recruitment practices that prey on economic hardship.

In the latest rebuke, activist and former Houthi fighter Abdullah Sharaf al-Mahdi attacked the group’s leaders and supervisors, accusing them of trading on fighters’ blood and sidelining bereaved and wounded families for personal gain.

Fighters and their families bear the cost of the war, al-Mahdi said, while officials and supervisors receive privileges including property and financial allocations. The conflict, he added, had become a vehicle for advancing the interests of factions within the group.

Al-Mahdi said he regretted the years he had spent fighting for the Houthis and would not support them again. His comments reflect a shift among some critics from opposing the group’s policies to questioning its motives for prolonging the war.

Criticism has also emerged from within Houthi-controlled institutions.

Abdu Bishr, a member of the Houthi-controlled parliament in Sanaa, accused the group of ignoring Yemenis’ suffering and pursuing what he called “futile” wars. He urged it to keep economic and humanitarian issues out of the conflict.

Bishr called for salaries to be paid, detainees released and airports reopened. He warned that what he described as “taking pleasure in bloodshed” would deepen the humanitarian catastrophe and urged the group to ease people’s suffering or “leave the scene.”

Houthi activist and writer Zaid al-Kibsi also criticized the group’s recruitment of young people and adolescents, saying it exploited poverty and worsening economic conditions to push more of them toward the front lines.

He accused the Houthis of using religious and sectarian rhetoric, along with slogans of “jihad and martyrdom,” to recruit young people as many families struggle to meet their basic needs.

Some recruits depend on the group’s modest payments to support their families while risking death or injury in combat, al-Kibsi said.

Many are young men who have had no chance to build their lives or start families, leaving their relatives to bear the consequences when they are killed or wounded.

Arab World

Israeli Support for Ethiopia’s Maritime Access Bid Fuels Tensions With Egypt

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed holds earlier talks with the Israeli president in Addis Ababa (Ethiopian News Agency)
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed holds earlier talks with the Israeli president in Addis Ababa (Ethiopian News Agency)
TT
TT

Israeli Support for Ethiopia’s Maritime Access Bid Fuels Tensions With Egypt

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed holds earlier talks with the Israeli president in Addis Ababa (Ethiopian News Agency)
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed holds earlier talks with the Israeli president in Addis Ababa (Ethiopian News Agency)

Israeli support for landlocked Ethiopia’s bid for access to the Red Sea is fueling tensions with Egypt, which has repeatedly opposed Addis Ababa’s moves amid a separate dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and its impact on Cairo’s Nile water share.

The Israeli backing raises friction with Egypt and gives Tel Aviv another way to pressure Cairo over its positions, despite the legitimacy of Egypt’s stance under international law, experts told Asharq Al-Awsat. They said the international community would ultimately determine the outcome.

Ethiopia has been landlocked since 1993, when Eritrea gained independence after a three-decade war. It relies on neighboring countries’ ports, particularly Djibouti’s.

The Ethiopian News Agency said Israel had announced diplomatic support for Ethiopia’s efforts to secure access to the sea. It quoted Israeli Ambassador to Ethiopia Avraham Neguise as saying that his country firmly backed the East African nation’s push for a Red Sea outlet.

Empowering and strengthening Ethiopia and stabilizing the Red Sea are in everyone’s interest, not Ethiopia’s alone, and Israel stands with Ethiopia in this effort, Neguise told the agency on Thursday evening.

It was not Neguise’s first intervention on an issue dividing Egypt and Ethiopia. In August, he told reporters that Israel would “continue to strengthen its support for Ethiopia, with the aim of helping it become a leading economic power on the African continent.”

Threat to Egyptian interests

African affairs expert Asmaa al-Husseini said the Israeli statements “increase tensions with Egypt” and point to “a covert Israeli role in Ethiopia’s Red Sea moves aimed at harming Egyptian interests.”

The issue may not trigger a direct crisis between Cairo and Tel Aviv, she told Asharq Al-Awsat, but Egypt would closely monitor it. Cairo’s response would depend on the level of escalation and Ethiopia’s actions on the ground.

“Egypt has the right to defend its national security,” Husseini said. “If any military arrangements targeting it are pursued in the Red Sea, Egypt will take measures to prevent them. Ethiopia and Israel understand this, but they are trying by every means to impose a fait accompli. Egypt will never accept that.”

Neguise’s latest remarks coincided with renewed Egyptian opposition to Ethiopian access to the Red Sea.

“There are sovereign states with ports on the Red Sea, and no one has the right to grant any country military maritime access. Otherwise, there would be chaos, particularly as many African countries are landlocked,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told a news conference on Thursday evening.

“There is no problem with commercial access,” he added.

Ramadan Qarny, an expert on African affairs, said Egypt’s opposition rested on several established principles.

“The first is legal: respect for international law, which affirms the exclusive right of littoral states to maintain a presence on the Red Sea coast,” Qarny told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The second is respect for African Union principles, which uphold the sanctity of borders inherited from the colonial era. Raising this issue could therefore open the door to widespread unrest across African countries.”

The third principle, Qarny said, was that “Egypt’s actions and position align with the principles of the African and Arab states bordering the Red Sea.”

Qarny said Israel was seeking Ethiopian backing on a similar issue: Israel’s presence in, or recognition of, the breakaway Somaliland region, which took place in December 2025.

“There is a political quid pro quo,” he said. “Israel supports Ethiopia in obtaining access to the Red Sea coast in exchange for Ethiopian support for Israel’s recognition of the breakaway Somaliland region.”

Cairo’s position

Cairo has not officially responded to Israel’s continued moves on Ethiopia.

Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed El-Orabi, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the chairman of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, has downplayed their impact.

In earlier remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said they would “neither undermine nor change” Egypt’s positions.

Qarny said Israeli support was unlikely to significantly alter the dynamics of the Egyptian-Ethiopian disputes.

“Tensions already exist and are likely to increase,” he said, adding that Ethiopian media had in recent months waged what he described as “a coordinated and organized campaign,” led by the Ethiopian News Agency, against Egypt’s positions.

The campaign, he said, had targeted Cairo’s stance on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the Nile Basin countries’ Cooperative Framework Agreement and Ethiopia’s bid for maritime access.

Arab World

Iraqi Factions Demand Law Bringing All Weapons Under State Control

Officials from the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry attend a security coordination meeting in Baghdad (government media)
Officials from the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry attend a security coordination meeting in Baghdad (government media)
TT
TT

Iraqi Factions Demand Law Bringing All Weapons Under State Control

Officials from the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry attend a security coordination meeting in Baghdad (government media)
Officials from the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry attend a security coordination meeting in Baghdad (government media)

Iraqi factions have renewed their demand that the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces be included in a plan to bring weapons under state control through a new law.

Qais al-Khazali, a senior figure in Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which announced last month that it had handed over its weapons, said the Kurdish forces were “constitutional and recognized by law.”

Iran-aligned Iraqi groups have repeatedly set conditions for accepting the plan. Observers believe the groups are trying to buy time as they await the outcome of the Iran-US conflict in the region.

Al-Khazali, a leader in the Coordination Framework alliance, said in televised remarks on Thursday night that “the Peshmerga is a constitutional institution and is not subject to the criteria for bringing weapons under state control.”

“These forces are recognized under the law,” he added.

Al-Khazali said bringing weapons under state control was “a legitimate aspiration for the stability of state institutions.” He added that “Shiite politicians are more concerned with this project than others.”

He said weapons had been transferred to state institutions “genuinely, rather than merely symbolically,” adding that Asaib Ahl al-Haq’s weapons had been placed under the authority of the Popular Mobilization Forces.

Al-Khazali’s position on the Peshmerga reflects sharp divisions among Shiite forces, including armed factions that have demanded the disarmament of Kurdish formations.

Al-Zaidi had made bringing weapons under state control a central part of his government program. Asaib Ahl al-Haq and other factions joined the settlement in the hope of easing international pressure and clearing the way for their participation in political and executive roles.

Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said on Thursday that talks with armed factions were underway at the highest levels to resolve the weapons issue.

He said, however, that implementation would begin after the international coalition’s mission ends on Sept. 30.

A law applying to everyone

Al-Khazali’s remarks followed local reports citing sources familiar with the talks with the factions.

The sources said the factions had demanded a new law requiring everyone, including the Peshmerga, to disarm.

Several faction officials told figures in the Coordination Framework that restrictions on weapons should apply to all parties, the sources said.

They said the proposal aimed to control, regulate, and manage weapons nationwide under a unified legal framework. This would prevent measures from being applied selectively to one party but not another.

The sources said a committee would be formed in the next phase to draft a law governing the control, regulation, and management of weapons.

The draft would undergo legal review before being referred to parliament for a vote, with political forces participating in the process.

Kifah Mahmoud, media adviser to the president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the Iraqi constitution recognizes the legitimacy of the Peshmerga’s weapons.”

He described al-Khazali’s remarks as “a belated acknowledgment.”

Mahmoud said the federal government was fully informed about the Peshmerga’s weapons, equipment and military divisions. He added that the Peshmerga was an essential part of Iraq’s official military establishment.

He said bringing the Peshmerga into the debate over weapons control in Baghdad reflected deep divisions within the governing alliance and an attempt to divert attention from the heart of the crisis.

A political source familiar with the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government’s plan was being obstructed by disagreements within the governing alliance itself.

The source said some figures opposed disarmament because they believed these groups should not be stripped of their power and influence.