Khalil Al-Hayya, the Hamas leader who met with US envoy and former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Cairo on Sunday, has emerged as a central figure within the Palestinian militant organization, especially during the recent Gaza war when Israel targeted and killed several of Hamas’ top leaders.
Appointed as Hamas’ overall leader in July, Al-Hayya narrowly survived an Israeli airstrike in Qatar in 2025 that tragically took the lives of his son and several aides. This Cairo meeting marked his second encounter with Kushner; in October 2025, Al-Hayya led a Hamas delegation in negotiations with Kushner and US envoy Steve Witkoff, facilitating a ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages captured during the Hamas-led attacks on Israel in 2023.
These talks represent a significant shift from Washington’s previous policy of avoiding direct engagement with Hamas, which the US continues to designate as a terrorist organization. Following the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Al-Sinwar in 2024, Al-Hayya served on a five-member council managing the group. Al-Sinwar was one of the architects behind the October 7, 2023 attacks that sparked the Gaza conflict.
Under Al-Hayya’s leadership, Hamas agreed in July to disarm under a Trump-backed initiative that linked the group’s weapon surrender to Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza—an unprecedented move for a group heavily targeted by Israel during the war. Hamas, however, rejects the term “disarmament,” stating instead that it will transfer its weapons to be held by a US-supported Palestinian technocratic government. Israel has dismissed this plan, insisting it will not withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed. The proposal also includes rebuilding Gaza.
Born in the Gaza Strip in 1960, Al-Hayya joined the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas originated in 1987. Holding a PhD in Islamic Studies, he climbed the ranks alongside figures like Sinwar—whom he served as deputy in Gaza—and Ismail Haniyeh, another Hamas leader assassinated by Israel in Tehran in 2024.
Al-Hayya has survived multiple assassination attempts. In 2007, an Israeli airstrike destroyed his family home in Gaza City’s Sejaiyeh neighborhood, killing several relatives while he was away. His son Hamza was killed in an Israeli attack in 2008. During the 2014 conflict, his eldest son Osama, along with Osama’s wife and three children, died when their home was bombed. In May, another son, Azzam Al-Hayya, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City while Al-Hayya was engaged in mediation talks. Azzam was the twin brother of Hammam Al-Hayya, who died in the 2025 Qatar airstrike.
Since 2021, Al-Hayya has been based in Qatar with other members of Hamas’ exiled political leadership, acting as the group’s liaison with Arab and Islamic states. Observers note that Al-Hayya belongs to a faction that strengthened Hamas’ ties to Shi’ite Muslim Iran, which supplied arms and funding prior to the Gaza war.
He played a key role in several rounds of indirect negotiations with Israel during the Gaza conflict before the ceasefire was finalized. Trump authorized Kushner and Witkoff to communicate directly with Hamas to help end the war and secure the release of hostages. Their October 8, 2025 meeting with Al-Hayya’s delegation was the most prominent US-Hamas interaction to date.
During talks, Witkoff expressed condolences to Al-Hayya for the loss of his son Hammam in the Doha airstrike, sharing his own experience of losing a child. Al-Hayya described their exchange as “humane words” over their shared grief. He also outlined Hamas’ primary demands, emphasizing the desire for stability, the establishment of a Palestinian entity and state in line with international law and relevant resolutions, and regional peace as essential for broader stability.
Hamas’ 1988 charter originally called for Israel’s destruction, though leaders have occasionally proposed long-term truces in exchange for a viable Palestinian state encompassing territories occupied since 1967. Israel remains skeptical of these offers.
Al-Hayya has stated that the October 7 attack was intended as a limited operation to capture Israeli soldiers for prisoner exchanges but that the Israeli military unit collapsed unexpectedly. The attack resulted in 1,200 Israeli deaths and 251 abductions, while Israel’s retaliatory offensive caused over 73,000 deaths in Gaza, local health authorities.
Despite the severe consequences of Israel’s offensive, Al-Hayya declared in a December 2025 speech that the resistance had proven the enemy could be defeated and shattered the myth of Israeli strategic deterrence. He also asserted that the Palestinian issue has regained prominence on the international stage.
