The movement said in a statement that its delegation discussed with Rashad the developments of the ceasefire agreement, the general situation in the Gaza Strip, and the nature of the second phase of the agreement, without giving details.
The Hamas delegation included the head of the leadership council, Muhammad Darwish, and council members Khaled Meshaal, Khalil al-Hayya, Nizar Awadallah, and Zaher Jabarin, in addition to political bureau member Ghazi Hamad.
Tel Aviv is conditioning the start of negotiations to launch the second phase of the agreement on receiving the remaining remains of Israeli prisoners, while Hamas has confirmed on more than one occasion that it will take time to extract them due to the massive destruction in Gaza.
Since the first phase of the ceasefire agreement came into effect on October 10, Palestinian factions have handed over 20 living Israeli prisoners and the remains of 27 others out of 28, according to their announcements.
However, Israel claimed that one of the remains it received did not belong to any of its prisoners, and that another set of remains was not new but rather the remains of a prisoner whose remains had previously been recovered.
Among the steps expected to be implemented in the second phase is the deployment of an international stabilization force in Gaza, something the United States proposed in a draft resolution to the UN Security Council.
According to the statement, the movement's delegation affirmed "the movement's commitment to implementing the first phase of the agreement," stressing "the importance of stopping the ongoing Zionist violations that threaten to undermine the agreement, through a clear and specific mechanism under the auspices and supervision of the mediators, based on informing the mediators of any violations in order to take the necessary measures to stop them immediately, and to prevent unilateral actions that cause an escalation of matters and harm the agreement."
On Saturday, the government media office in Gaza announced that the Israeli occupation army had killed 342 Palestinians as a result of 497 violations of the ceasefire agreement since it came into effect.
According to the statement, the Hamas delegation also discussed "ways to urgently address the issue of the (Qassam Brigades) fighters in Rafah through the efforts of mediators with various parties, noting that communication with the fighters is cut off.
On Saturday, the Israeli occupation army claimed that it had "killed and arrested" 17 members of Hamas, allegedly for trying to escape from an underground tunnel east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The army said in a statement: "At the end of a 24-hour confrontation, 17 militants who tried to escape from an underground tunnel east of Rafah were eliminated and arrested," claiming that "11 militants were eliminated and 6 others were arrested and transferred to the General Security Service (Shin Bet) to complete the investigations."
The city of Rafah remains within the areas occupied by Israel, according to the ceasefire agreement that came into effect on October 10, under the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
The ceasefire agreement ended the war of extermination in Gaza that began on October 8, 2023, which left more than 69,000 Palestinian martyrs and more than 170,000 wounded, most of them children and women, while the United Nations estimated the cost of reconstruction at about $70 billion
