Palestinian negotiators exchanged messages with the Board of Peace’s senior representative for Gaza after accusing the US-led body of departing from an agreement reached in Cairo, according to three Palestinian sources.

Two Hamas sources and a representative of another faction involved in the negotiations told Asharq Al-Awsat that the messages were exchanged with Nickolay Mladenov on Tuesday evening.

The delegation reportedly objected to a Board of Peace statement linking any Israeli withdrawal beyond Gaza’s Yellow Line to the completion of the weapons decommissioning process.

According to the sources, the Palestinian message described the statement as a reversal of the Cairo understandings and criticised it for focusing on weapons while omitting Israel’s obligations, including halting attacks, withdrawing its forces and meeting humanitarian commitments.

The sources said Mladenov replied that no changes had been made to the 15-point roadmap. He reportedly said his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been intended to stop attacks that threatened to derail the agreement before implementation began.

They said Mladenov acknowledged that Sunday’s Israeli escalation had damaged the atmosphere surrounding the negotiations and warned that further attacks could destroy the progress achieved in Cairo.

Neither side has published the messages. Their contents therefore rely on the accounts provided by the three sources and have not been independently confirmed.

Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau and negotiating delegation, said publicly on Wednesday that the group was still waiting for a formal response from Mladenov regarding the second phase. This suggests that Hamas does not regard the reported private exchange as a final official answer.

Naim said Hamas and other factions remained committed to the understandings reached with Mladenov and the mediators. He also welcomed a joint statement from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey accusing Israel of undermining efforts to implement the agreement.

The dispute followed Mladenov’s meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday. After the talks, the Board of Peace said Israeli forces would move beyond the Yellow Line “only once decommissioning is complete”, including light and heavy weapons and tunnels.

The Times of Israel reported that an earlier version of the statement referred to a “full withdrawal”, but that the word “full” was removed minutes later. The newspaper said the revised wording appeared inconsistent with Mladenov’s earlier position that withdrawal should proceed in parallel with decommissioning.

The published roadmap sets out a gradual, internationally verified process under which military infrastructure would be dismantled and weapons collected according to an agreed timetable. Israeli forces would withdraw in stages as an international stabilisation force deployed and a transitional Palestinian administration assumed responsibility.

US President Donald Trump also said when announcing the agreement that Israeli forces would withdraw as decommissioning progressed, rather than waiting until the process was fully completed.

Netanyahu rejected that sequence on Tuesday, saying Israel had not accepted the US draft and had submitted its own amendments. He insisted that Israeli forces would remain in their current positions until Hamas was completely disarmed.

Israel’s military has also presented three principal demands, according to the Israeli public broadcaster Kan: retaining freedom to conduct operations inside Gaza, overseeing the weapons handed over by Palestinian factions and preventing any partial withdrawal before complete disarmament.

The Board of Peace has not publicly accepted those conditions.

Egypt, Qatar and Turkey condemned continuing Israeli attacks in a joint statement on Monday. The mediators said the attacks breached the ceasefire and threatened its second phase, particularly after Hamas and other Palestinian factions accepted the roadmap’s provisions on weapons.

The agreement provides for a 14-day halt to Israeli attacks once all parties approve the roadmap. During that period, negotiators would establish a timetable covering decommissioning, withdrawal and the remaining obligations. Israel’s refusal to accept the current draft has left that pause on hold.

The unresolved issue is therefore the order of implementation. Israel demands complete disarmament before withdrawing, while the Palestinian factions say both processes must advance gradually through reciprocal and independently verified steps.

No date has been announced for the second phase to begin.