Hamas Tells Washington the Gaza Deal Is Over, Al Arabiya Says

Hamas considers the ceasefire in Gaza to be over, the Saudi network Al Arabiya reported on 22 November 2025. According to that report, the group told the US envoy Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, that "the deal is over and they are ready to fight".

Hamas leadership sources cited by Al Arabiya added that the message passed to Washington was that "the ceasefire must be mutual" and that "Gaza will not become Lebanon", a reference to continuing Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The declaration followed Israeli air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza after Hamas members opened fire on Israeli soldiers in the Strip. Those strikes, the report said, killed Abdullah al-Haddidi, head of the supply department at Hamas's weapons manufacturing headquarters.

The agreement that was said to be over

The truce in question came out of a 20-point plan brokered by Trump and signed on 9 October 2025. The ceasefire took effect on 10 October, with phase one requiring the return of all hostages, living and dead, within 72 hours against the release of 2,000 Palestinian prisoners; 20 living hostages were released on 13 October. Israeli forces did not leave Gaza but pulled back to the Yellow Line, a boundary of roughly 45 kilometres marked with yellow concrete blocks that left about half the Strip under Israeli control.

What Israel and Hamas said next

The Times of Israel, reporting the same day, said Israel's Prime Minister's Office claimed five senior Hamas officials had been killed, that Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence put the day's total dead at 21 (an unverified figure that does not separate civilians from combatants), and that Hamas signalled through Arab mediators it could end the six-week-old truce. The paper also reported that a Hamas spokesman, Izzat al-Rishq, subsequently denied the group had formally ended the ceasefire, calling instead on mediators to press Israel to comply. The following day the Israeli military identified the supply official it had killed as Alaa Hadidi, head of Hamas's supply and equipment department.

Why "Gaza will not become Lebanon"

The phrase points to a different front. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on 27 November 2024, requiring Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani river and Israel to withdraw south of the Blue Line, with a five-country panel led by the United States monitoring it. In practice Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon continued after the ceasefire, and Lebanon has since documented more than 10,000 alleged Israeli violations of it. The pattern (a signed truce that leaves one side still under regular attack) is what the quoted Hamas sources said they would not accept in Gaza.

What is still unclear

This account rests on a single Saudi television report citing unnamed Hamas leadership sources; neither Hamas nor the US officials named confirmed it publicly in the material available. The report did not say when or through what channel the message was delivered. It also spelled the US envoy's name Whitcoff and the killed official's name al-Haddidi, both of which differ from the spellings used in Israeli statements the next day.