Delegations from Hamas and Israel, together with mediators, convened yesterday in Egypt for talks, with U.S. President Donald Trump calling on negotiators to “move fast” to end the nearly two-year war on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas says its delegation is headed by Khalil al-Hayya, the head of the group’s negotiating team who was targeted in an assassination attempt by Israel in Qatar last month.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have continued unabated, with at least 10 Palestinians, including aid seekers, killed since dawn.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 67,160 people and wounded 169,679 since October 2023.

Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks and about 200 were taken captive.

Behind closed doors and under tight security, negotiators will speak through mediators shuttling back and forth, only weeks after Israel tried to kill Hamas’s lead negotiators in a strike on Qatar.

The Hamas delegation, led by top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya who survived the attack in Doha, held a meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials ahead of the talks, according to an Egyptian security source.

This round of negotiations, launched on the eve of the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war, “may last for several days”, said a Palestinian source close to Hamas’s leadership.

“We expect the negotiations to be difficult and complex, given the occupation’s intentions to continue its war of extermination,” he told AFP.