Who is Khalil Al-Hayya, the Hamas leader who met Kushner in Cairo?

Khalil Al-Hayya, a Hamas leader, met with Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's envoy and son-in-law, in Cairo. According to Al-Monitor, Al-Hayya was named Hamas' overall leader in July and narrowly escaped assassination in a 2025 Israeli airstrike in Qatar that killed his son and aides.

Kushner met with Al-Hayya in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of El-Alamein, as per Dawn and Malay Mail, though the location was given as Cairo by South China Morning Post. The meeting was part of Kushner's efforts to revive a Gaza peace plan. The plan has been rejected by Israel, which insists that any settlement must ensure Hamas is "genuinely disarmed".

Kushner reportedly demanded that Hamas verify it is giving up its weapons and renounce any future role in governing the Palestinian territory. According to Dawn and Malay Mail, a Hamas official said the group told Kushner it was committed to the Gaza plan and wanted pressure on Netanyahu. Kushner also met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, along with other officials, including Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza on Trump's "Board of Peace".

Brief written by urgent.news from Al-Monitor, Dawn, Malay Mail, South China Morning Post — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.