RIYADH: Hamas was urged on Monday by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron to accept an offer of a 40-day ceasefire and the release of “potentially thousands” of Palestinian prisoners in return for freeing Israeli hostages.

Speaking at a Special Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, the former UK prime minister said the Palestinian militant group had been given “a very generous offer of sustained 40-day ceasefire, the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners, in return for the release of these hostages.”

A Hamas delegation is due in Egypt on Monday, where it is expected to respond to the latest proposal for a truce in Gaza and a release of hostages after almost seven months of war in the enclave, which broke out after militants killed nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

“I hope Hamas do take this deal and, frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes of the world should be on them today saying take that deal,” Cameron said, adding the proposal would lead to a “stop in the fighting that we all want to see so badly.”

Egypt, Qatar and the US have been trying to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas for months, but a flurry of diplomacy in recent days appeared to suggest a new push toward halting hostilities.

The UK foreign minister said that for Palestinian statehood to become a reality, there needed to be a wholesale change in thinking on both the Israeli and Palestinian side.

For a “political horizon for a two-state solution,” with an independent Palestine co-existing with Israel, the “people responsible for Oct. 7, the Hamas leadership, would have to leave Gaza and you’ve got to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza,” he said.

“You’ve got to see a political future for the Palestinian people, but you’ve also crucially got to see security for Israel, and those two things have to go together,” he added.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who joined Cameron on the panel discussing what policymakers needed to do to rejuvenate global growth, went further and told the forum that the world could not focus on economic development unless it had peace.

“I want to make it very clear, the world will not be in peace unless there is a permanent peace in Gaza; I am speaking very frankly,” he said.

Sharif said the breakout of conflict between Russia and Ukraine had already given a warning of what conflict means for growth, adding that it caused commodity prices to skyrocket, inflation to soar, and impacted imports and exports of food and raw materials.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Economy and Planning, Faisal Alibrahim, echoed the Pakistani leader’s assertions, adding that current economic growth levels were lower than desired, and that increased productivity and global collaboration were the two keys to improving the situation.

“Productivity needs to see an upward shift,” he said. “We need to focus on the tools, the interventions, that will help us grow productivity.

“Secondly, (do we want) collaboration or fragmentation? A more fragmented world is a lower-growth world and with fragmentation comes a lot of cost. Without collaboration, we cannot achieve higher growth rates for the global economy.”

RIYADH: Only a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine can prevent the outbreak of an all-out regional and possible global conflict, said Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli at the World Economic Forum here on Monday.

Participating in a panel discussion on Gaza, Madbouli said that if the current situation continues this would also affect the future of Israel.

“It is now or never, the whole world should unite to recognize the rights of Palestinians to have their own state. If you could imagine that postponing this will solve the problem, or will be in Israel’s interest, you are wrong. It will be against the future of Israel itself.”

He added: “We are speaking about a nation that has been under aggression and occupation for the past 75 years. Behind closed doors, everybody recognizes their right to exist, but when it comes to reality, and to have a solid solution, everybody is refraining.”

Madbouli said a two-state solution is the only remedy to achieve regional peace.

“It is today that we all have to push for a two-state solution, along with a serious regional solution. No one can imagine the situation if a regional war had to start. If you imagine that you are far then you are in a very elusive situation, everybody will be affected. We have already seen a sample of a war between Iran and Israel this month.”

Other panelists, including Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh and Sigrid Kaag, the UN humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, expressed their frustration with the situation on the ground.

Al-Khasawneh said: “This is indeed an extremely timely event, challenging and depressing. There are a lot of diplomatic activities underway, along with the continued Israeli aggression on Gaza and the potential for another catastrophic additional aggression on Rafah, which by all standards will be a catastrophe that adds on to a catastrophe that has led to conditions close to famine in Gaza.”

He said the damage caused by Israel’s campaign is estimated to be about $18.7 billion; and that the UN reports that 1.1 million children require psychological counseling.

Al-Khasawneh also called for a two-state solution: “Israel insists on making the same mistakes, and expecting different results, which is not engaging seriously in a political solution.”

He added: “The world seems to be falling into the trap of following the agenda of narrow-minded Israeli politicians, frankly speaking, and it is quite catastrophic. Today it is about the political calculations of some politicians in Israel at the expense of, the safety of Israelis, the safety of Jordanians, Egyptians, and all the Arabs. Today it’s the safety of the whole region and beyond.”

Kaag said a political solution has to be found. “If we look ahead, the reconstruction efforts, from an investment perspective, are all tied to the political parameters, the two-state solution.”

Kaag added: “The paradigm shift is in the now, but it’s also looking towards the future because of the level of destruction and despair, people there tell you that they feel like zombies. The mental health crisis is humongous. So, we need to create hope through investment, rehabilitation, and focus on the political effort. I think we failed the Palestinians countless times, and they deserve more human rights.”