CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Friday appeared to discredit the moribund Israel-Palestinian peace process and instead called on the international community to recognize the Palestinian state.
During a joint news conference with the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium in Cairo, El-Sisi said reviving the process aimed at ending the Israel-Palestinian conflict “may not be what is required.”
“The results of this path faltering for 30 years tells us that we must” adopt a different approach, he said.
This would entail “the recognition of the Palestinian state by the international community and bringing it into the United Nations... This would show seriousness,” El-Sisi added.
He pointed to the high civilian death toll in successive Gaza conflicts, saying the wars erupted because the “political horizons for resolving the Palestinian cause always failed” to fulfil the Palestinians’ aspirations.
El-Sisi’s remarks come on the first day of a truce between Israel and Hamas, to be accompanied by the release of hostages taken in Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian groups in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
The four-day truce deal was concluded with mediation from Qatar, with support from Egypt and the United States, and comes almost seven weeks after the war erupted on October 7.
Israel has launched an aerial and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip that has left 14,854 Palestinians dead, among them 6,150 children, according to the Hamas government.
It came after militants from Gaza carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli territory that left around 1,200 people dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Hamas and other Palestinian groups also took around 240 hostages to Gaza on the day of the attack.
Egypt’s El-Sisi calls for recognition of Palestinian state
https://arab.news/wsgg4
Egypt’s El-Sisi calls for recognition of Palestinian state
- El-Sisi said reviving the process aimed at ending the Israel-Palestinian conflict “may not be what is required”
- “The results of this path faltering for 30 years tells us that we must” adopt a different approach, he said
Senior Hamas figure among 7 killed in Israeli airstrike
- Pair of Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza's Deir Al-Balah, killing a Hamas commander
- Boy, aged 16, among the dead
CAIRO: A senior figure in the armed wing of Hamas was among seven people killed on Thursday in a pair of Israeli airstrikes in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, a Hamas source said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident. The Hamas source said one of the dead was Mohammed Al-Holy, a local commander in the group’s armed wing in Deir Al-Balah.
Hamas condemned the strikes on the Al-Holy family, in a statement that did not mention Mohammed or his role in the group. It accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal in place since October, and attempting to reignite the conflict.
Health officials said the six other dead in the incident included a 16-year-old.
Israel and Hamas have traded blame for violations of the ceasefire and remain far apart from each other on key issues, despite the United States announcing the start of the agreement’s second phase on Wednesday.
More than 400 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been reported killed since the ceasefire took effect in October.
Israel has razed buildings and ordered residents out of more than half of Gaza where its troops remain. Nearly all of the territory’s more than 2 million people now live in makeshift homes or damaged buildings in a sliver of territory where Israeli troops have withdrawn and Hamas has reasserted control.
The United Nations children’s agency said on Tuesday that over 100 children have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire, including victims of drone and quadcopter attacks.
Israel launched its operations in Gaza in the wake of an attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023 which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s assault has killed 71,000 people, according to health authorities in the strip, and left much of Gaza in ruins.
