Egypt: Leaders and top officials gathered at the Cairo Summit for Peace have discussed ways to “de-escalate” the Israel-Hamas war. The summit held in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, was attended by representatives from countries including Jordan, France, Germany, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Qatar, and South Africa, together with United Nations and European Union officials.
Egypt’s President Mr. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi rejected the forced displacement of Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula as the first aid convoy entered Gaza after two weeks of war. Mr. Sisi added that the only solution was an independent state for Palestinians.
“About 500 trucks a day had been entering Gaza before the war started. Some 1.2 million people living in the territory already relied on food aid,” the UN noted. The UN will be responsible for distributing the aid, with much of it likely to be sent to UN schools, where thousands have been sheltering, and hospitals.
The Egyptian President also noted that his country would not allow Palestinians to be displaced across the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Mr. Sisis’s comments were backed by Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud.
Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, who is the head of the Palestinian Authority, which has control over areas of the occupied West Bank, also said Palestinians could not be forced to leave. “We will never accept relocation; we will remain on our land, whatever the challenges,” Mr. Abbas remarked.
The summit broke up without a joint statement. No Israeli or senior US officials were present at the summit. At the end of the summit, Egypt released a statement approved by Arab delegations, criticising world leaders for seeking to “manage the conflict and not end it permanently”.
Egypt and other Arab states have previously said that Palestinian refugees fleeing the war would be unacceptable because it would amount to the expulsion of Palestinians from their land.
Jordan’s King Abdullah denounced what he called “global silence about Israel’s attacks on Gaza.” King Abdullah added that “the message the Arab world is hearing is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones.”
During his address, UN Secretary Mr. General Antonio Guterres called for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in the war, demanding global “action to end this godawful nightmare”.
