Hamas said talks with mediators and representatives of the Peace Council have produced broad agreements and significant progress toward implementing the Gaza ceasefire agreement and moving it into a second phase. The remarks, reported by Shafaq News on June 17, 2026, present the negotiations as active and unfinished rather than resolved, with several major questions still on the table.
According to Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem, the discussions have focused on the entry of the National Committee into the Gaza Strip, the deployment of international forces and the issue of Palestinian weapons. Qassem said the weapons question was being handled through a logical framework acceptable to all parties, and he said Hamas continues to meet mediators and Peace Council representatives, including Nikolay Mladenov, to finalize the framework for implementation.
Qassem also said Hamas is showing flexibility and positivity in the talks. He said the movement’s goals include ending what it called the genocide in Gaza, facilitating humanitarian assistance and beginning reconstruction efforts. Those aims were presented as the basis for Hamas’s current posture in the negotiations, with the group arguing that the next phase should reflect Palestinian interests in Gaza.
The report said Hamas on Sunday submitted the response of Palestinian factions to a roadmap proposed by Mladenov, while repeating its demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. That step shows the talks are moving through a formal sequence, with responses being delivered and positions being restated even as the sides search for a workable sequence for the next phase.
Mladenov presented a 15-point roadmap on May 21 to implement a Gaza plan proposed by US President Donald Trump. According to the report, the roadmap covers reconstruction, disarmament, Israeli withdrawal, the role of an international stabilization force and the rebuilding of the police apparatus. It also calls for the implementation of measures promised at the start of the ceasefire, including humanitarian aid, fuel deliveries, border crossings and shelter provisions, along with commitments contained in the Sharm El-Sheikh understandings before the next stage can begin.
The same report links the current talks to Trump’s 20-point plan, unveiled on September 29, 2025, to end the war in Gaza. That proposal included the release of Israeli hostages, the disarmament of Hamas, a phased Israeli withdrawal, the formation of a technocratic government and the deployment of an international stabilization force. The first phase entered into force on October 10, 2025, but Hamas says it has fulfilled its obligations under the agreement and accuses Israel of violating it and delaying the transition to the second phase.
What emerges from the report is a negotiation process that has not reached a final landing point but has entered a more detailed stage. The parties are no longer only describing broad principles; they are arguing over institutions, weapons, security forces, reconstruction and the order in which commitments are meant to happen. Hamas is presenting itself as willing to keep talking, but it is also insisting that any next step must include an end to Israeli military presence in Gaza and a structure it says can support relief and rebuilding.
The report does not settle the broader dispute over how the ceasefire should be implemented, but it does show that the second phase is being discussed in concrete terms. That matters because the negotiations now appear to be less about whether there is a framework at all and more about which version of that framework will govern Gaza’s next stage.
