Khalil al-Hayya, June 6 -- The question that has shadowed every round of Gaza negotiations since last October arrived in Cairo with Hamas on Friday evening, carried in the delegation's luggage as surely as any formal talking point. Can a movement that has governed a coastal strip through a devastating military campaign, and emerged from it still armed and still politically relevant, be persuaded to give those weapons up? And if not, what does a second phase of the ceasefire actually mean?

discuss implementation of the first phase with Egyptian officials, address the mechanism for moving to the second phase, and meet with the broader constellation of Palestinian factions to develop what Hamas called "a unified national position on various...