Who is Khalil Al-Hayya, the Hamas leader who met Kushner in Cairo? (Amends spelling of Shejaia neighbourhood in paragraph 13 to conform with Reuters style) By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Tom Perry Aug 17 (Reuters) - Khalil Al-Hayya, the Hamas chief who met U.S. envoy Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, in Cairo on Sunday, emerged as a pivotal figure in the Palestinian militant group during the Gaza war as Israel killed its other leaders. Named Hamas' overall leader in July, Hayya narrowly escaped assassination himself in a 2025 Israeli airstrike in Qatar that killed his son and aides. The Cairo meeting marked Hayya's second with Kushner: in October 2025, heled a Hamas delegation in negotiations with Kushner and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, helping to clinch a deal that led to a ceasefire and the release of remaining hostages seized in the Hamas-led attacks on Israel in 2023. The meetings have marked a departure from Washington's longstanding policy of shunning Hamas, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist group. Hayya served as part of a five-member council that ran the group from 2024 after Israel killed Hamas leader Yahya Al-Sinwar - one of the masterminds of the October 7, 2023 attacks that ignited the Gaza war. On his watch, Hamas agreed in July to lay down its weapons under a Trump-backed plan linking its disarmament to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza - a once unimaginable declaration from a group that was pummelled by Israel during the war. Hamas has rejected the word "disarmament", instead saying it has agreed to hand over its weapons to be stored under the control of a U.S.-backed Palestinian technocratic government. Israel has rejected the plan, which also foresees Gaza being rebuilt, saying it won't withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed. A HAMAS VETERAN Born in the Gaza Strip in 1960, Hayya joined the Sunni Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement from which Hamas emerged in 1987. He has a PhD in Islamic Studies. He rose through the Hamas ranks alongside figures such as Sinwar - serving as his deputy for Gaza - and Ismail Haniyeh, another former Hamas leader who was assassinated by Israel in Tehran in 2024. The Doha airstrike was not Hayya's first narrow escape. In 2007, an Israeli airstrike hit his family home in Gaza City's Shejaiaquarter, killing several of his relatives. Hayya was not there at the time. In 2008, his son Hamza was killed in an Israeli attack in Gaza. During a war between Hamas and Israel in 2014, the house of Hayya's eldest son, Osama, was bombed, killing him, his wife and three of their children. Azzam Al-Hayya, another of his sons, was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in May while Hayya was engaged in talks with mediators. Azzam was the twin brother of Hammam Al-Hayya - the son killed in the Doha strike. Hayya left Gaza in 2021, basing himself in Qatar along with other members of Hamas' exiled political leadership. From Doha, he served as Hamas' point person with Arab and Islamic states, among other roles. Among Hamas watchers, Hayya is seen as part of a camp that deepened the group's ties to Shi'ite Muslim Iran, which provided the group with arms and finance before the Gaza war. Hayya was closely involved in numerous rounds of indirect negotiations with Israel during the Gaza war before a ceasefire deal was finally reached. EXCHANGING CONDOLENCES WITH WITKOFF Trump granted Witkoff and Kushner permission to speak directly to Hamas as he sought to secure an end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages. Their October 8, 2025 meeting with the Hayya-led delegation was the highest-profile encounter yet between the U.S. and Hamas. Witkoff said he had expressed condolences to Hayya during their meeting for the loss of his son Hammam in Israel's Doha airstrike. "I told him that I had lost a son, and that we were both members of a really bad club, parents who have buried children," Witkoff told CBS News' 60 Minutes programme. Hayya has said he and Witkoff exchanged "humane words" over the loss of their sons. He also set out core Hamas demands. "We told them ... what we want. We want stability, we want a Palestinian entity, we want a Palestinian state in accordance with international law and relevant resolutions. We want to live in peace so that the region can stabilise, and without that, the region will not stabilise," he told Al Jazeera in an interview. DEFENDING RIGHT TO 'RESISTANCE' Hamas' 1988 founding charter called for the destruction of Israel, although Hamas leaders have at times offered a long-term truce with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state on all Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. Israel regards this as a ruse. Hayya has been cited as saying the October 7 attack had been meant as a limited operation to capture "a number of soldiers" to swap for jailed Palestinians. "But the Zionist army unit completely collapsed," he said in comments published by the Hamas-linked Palestinian Information Center in 2024, referring to Israel's military. Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in the October 7 attack on Israel, and abducted another 251. Israel's retaliatory offensive killed more than 73,000 people, according to Gazan health authorities. Despite the devastation caused by Israel's Gaza offensive, Hayya said in a December 2025 speech that "the resistance" had shown "the enemy can be defeated" and that the myth of Israeli "strategic deterrence" had been shattered. He has also said the Palestinian issue has been put back on the international agenda. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Tom Perry; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by William Maclean and Gareth Jones)
Who is Khalil Al-Hayya, the Hamas leader who met Kushner in Cairo? (Amends spelling of Shejaia neighbourhood in paragraph 13 to conform with Reuters style) By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Tom Perry Aug 17 (Reuters) - Khalil Al-Hayya, the Hamas chief who met U.S. envoy Jared Kushner, Pre…
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Iranian ballistic missiles struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan over the weekend, with the Pentagon confirming light material damage though initially withholding specific casualty or loss details. While unverified social media footage suggested significant impacts, CBS News reported based on anonymous officials that several US military aircraft were damaged, including at least one A-10 Thunderbolt potentially being knocked out of commission.
The IMF stated it is closely monitoring the potential economic impacts of proposed US measures to tighten restrictions on Iran and enforce secondary sanctions, with a fuller assessment planned for upcoming reports. This economic pressure follows a shift from large-scale military strikes to sanctions, occurring after both sides signed a memorandum of understanding in June that included an immediate cessation of hostilities.
The IAEA reported observing construction activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified site near Tehran that the agency has not yet inspected, though remote imagery suggests new movement. While President Trump publicly cited this reported activity to warn against Iranian deception, independent verification of the site’s specific nuclear capabilities remains limited due to access restrictions and historical disputes over IAEA integrity.
Iran is increasingly relying on the Houthis in Yemen and allied militias in Iraq to pressure Saudi Arabia and other US allies in the Gulf, according to regional officials and experts. In July, Saudi Arabia and the US struck Iran-backed Iraqi militias after the groups were blamed for drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities claimed by the Houthis.
Two Saudi officials and a senior Iraqi security official told Reuters that Houthi representatives had worked from an operations room run by Iraqi militias to plan and carry out the two-day drone attack. Officials from Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces denied involvement.
The shift comes after several of Iran’s most important regional allies and partners suffered major losses in the wars that followed Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Israel severely weakened Hamas and Hezbollah, while US and Israeli strikes also targeted Iran and allied groups elsewhere in the region.
Regional officials and experts say Tehran has increasingly relied on the Houthis and Iraqi militias to pressure Saudi Arabia and other US allies in the Gulf. Geopolitics · Middle East Conflict Yemen on the Brink: Civil War & Global Oil Shipping How Houthi escalation and Red Sea shipping threats threaten regional stability and global energy markets.
40M+ Population 150K Past Casualties Buckling Ceasefire Yemen is moving closer to a return to civil war as a 2022 ceasefire with the internationally recognized government and Saudi-backed coalition buckles. Over 40 million residents fear a renewal of the conflict that previously brought widespread famine and humanitarian crisis.
Red Sea Port of Mokha Residents report that Houthi rebels have entered the key Red Sea port of Mokha, previously held by the government. This endangers a crucial entry point for food and humanitarian assistance in a country where many remain hungry and beyond the reach of aid.
Bab el-Mandeb Approach If the Houthis take Mokha, it marks a significant step toward the Bab el-Mandeb strait, creating further complications for vital Red Sea shipping lanes as global traffic diverts away from the targeted Strait of Hormuz. Testing Blockades Weeks ago, the Houthis tested a Saudi-led blockade of rebel-held areas.
In response, Saudi airstrikes hit the international airport in the rebel-held capital of Sanaa, following Houthi attacks on oil facilities and utilities in Saudi Arabia that wounded dozens. Targeting Saudi Oil Alternatives With the Iran war choking the Strait of Hormuz, the Houthis are targeting Saudi efforts to ship oil via the Red Sea, aligning with Tehran's war aims to limit oil shipments from the Gulf and inflict economic pain on US-allied Saudi Arabia.
$1 Trillion Red Sea Goods >$100 Crude Oil / Bbl Expanding Houthi Control Analyst Ahmed Nagi notes that the Houthis now control a much larger stretch of the western coast, bringing them closer to Bab al-Mandeb and posing a flashing danger sign for global energy consumers already rattled by high crude prices.
The immediate threat is now concentrated on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Four Yemeni government military sources told Reuters on Thursday that the Houthis had seized Mocha, a historic port city about 80 km from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Associated Press reported that two residents said Houthi forces had entered and spread across the city, although it could not independently verify their accounts.
The Houthis have also advanced towards the strategic Hanish Islands, according to Yemeni government sources, while government forces and their allies are moving south towards Dhubab. The town sits directly on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, opposite the island of Perim.
Story continues below this ad Control of Dhubab and Perim would give either side a crucial position from which to influence traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Key shipping route at risk Bab el-Mandeb links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and is a critical route for ships carrying oil, fuel and other goods between Asia, Europe and the Middle East via the Suez Canal.
Its importance has increased as the conflict with Iran has severely disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for Gulf oil exports. Saudi Arabia has been sending more oil through the Red Sea as an alternative to the disrupted Strait of Hormuz.
But the alternative route is now also coming under pressure from the Houthis. Story continues below this ad The Houthis have attacked Saudi oil facilities and shipping in the Red Sea and declared a naval blockade against Saudi shipping. Yemen risks return to full-scale civil war The fighting also raises the risk of Yemen returning to full-scale civil war.
A UN-brokered truce in 2022 largely stopped years of major fighting between the Houthis and forces supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government. Recent clashes are now threatening that fragile calm. More than 20,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Taiz and Hodeida over the past two weeks, according to Yemeni government data cited by Reuters.
Hundreds of women and children also left Mocha on Thursday. Story continues below this ad Saudi Arabia says recent Houthi attacks on civilian and economic sites in its south have wounded 73 people, including women and children. The Houthis, meanwhile, said Saudi strikes hit several provinces in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has not confirmed those strikes. Saudi warning sent to Iran Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources told Reuters that Pakistan conveyed a Saudi warning to Tehran asking it to rein in the Houthis. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran does not control the Houthis.
Two other Iranian sources, however, told the news agency that Tehran had instructed the Houthis to attack Saudi Arabia and promised additional funding and weapons. Story continues below this ad The Houthi advance towards Bab el-Mandeb therefore adds another danger to the regional conflict: Yemen risks sliding back into full-scale war while another major route for global oil and trade comes under growing pressure.
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