CAIRO: The international community was urged on Saturday to call on Israel to cease its attacks and provocative actions against the Palestinian people.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called on the UN Security Council to “uphold its responsibility” and “put measures in place to protect Palestinian rights.”
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi warned of a “vicious cycle” of violence.
El-Sisi received a call from French President Emmanuel Macron, the Egyptian presidency said, and the two discussed “coordinating efforts to stop the escalation in the Gaza Strip between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.”
El-Sisi’s spokesman said he “warned against the danger of the situation deteriorating and sliding into more violence, the worsening of humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the region entering into a vicious cycle of tensions threatening regional stability and security.”
The Foreign Ministry had appealed to “both the Palestinian and Israeli sides to exercise the highest degrees of restraint.”
Shoukry made a series of calls, including to his counterparts in Russia, Turkiye, Germany, France, and Spain, to rally “international actors” to “intervene immediately.”
In a call with Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, both men “expressed their deep concern about the progressive and dangerous deterioration of events.”
In a separate statement, Safadi warned of the “volatility” of the situation, “particularly in light of what cities and areas of the West Bank are witnessing of Israeli attacks and violations against the Palestinian people.”
Shoukry also called UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed to discuss “the gravity of the current situation and the need to make every effort to prevent the security situation from getting out of control.”
In a call with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Shoukry stressed the “importance of stopping the escalation and all sides exercising restraint.”
A Foreign Ministry statement said that Shoukry and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov stressed “the need for an immediate stop to the escalations” ahead of Sunday’s emergency UN Security Council meeting.
Cairo called on the international community to “urge Israel to stop the attacks and provocative actions against the Palestinian people and to adhere to the principles of international humanitarian law with regard to the responsibilities of an occupying state.”
A Turkish Foreign Ministry source said that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held phone calls with his Qatari, Saudi, Egyptian, Palestinian, and Iranian counterparts to discuss the conflict between Israeli forces and Pales.
Earlier, Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry said Ankara was in close contact with all parties and stood ready to help de-escalate the situation.
