Secret meeting held between senior Hamas officials and French delegation

A boat carrying a large banner that reads “Gaza Lives On” sails off the coast during a demonstration held in support of Palestinians as the 79th Cannes Film Festival continues in Cannes, southern France on May 16, 2026. [Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed – Anadolu Agency]

A secret meeting was recently held between senior officials from Hamas’s political bureau and a French delegation that included current and former diplomats as well as members of the French parliament.

The report was published by the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday, citing Palestinian sources.

According to the report, the meeting was the first of its kind since the 7 October attack.

Two Palestinian sources said the meeting took place “not long ago” in a country in the region, but declined to disclose its exact location.

The sources described the meeting as “highly confidential”, noting that some countries and Palestinian factions were informed of it only shortly before it took place or shortly afterwards.

Two senior Hamas officials confirmed to the Saudi newspaper that the meeting had been held, but declined to provide further details about its content or outcomes.

READ: Israel deports French journalist over criticism of Gaza genocide

0 Comments

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.