CAIRO: US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi discussed negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza on Tuesday and agreed to remain in close coordination in the coming hours, the White House said.
Negotiators were trying on Tuesday to clinch agreement on the final details of a ceasefire in Gaza after marathon talks in Qatar, with the involved parties saying a deal was closer than ever. Both Egypt and the US are mediators in the talks.
Democrat Biden, whose administration has been taking part alongside an envoy of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, has said a deal was close.
“Both leaders committed to remain in close coordination directly and through their teams over the coming hours,” the White House said in a statement after the call between Biden and El-Sisi.
“Both leaders emphasized the urgent need for a deal to be implemented,” the White House added.
Ceasefire talks have previously faced hurdles.
The White House said the two leaders also discussed surging humanitarian aid in Gaza where Israel’s military assault in the last 15 months has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while also triggering accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
The assault has also displaced nearly Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population and caused a hunger crisis.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023 , when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.
Egypt’s El-Sisi, Biden discuss Gaza ceasefire, hostages-for-prisoners swap deal, Egypt presidency says
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Egypt’s El-Sisi, Biden discuss Gaza ceasefire, hostages-for-prisoners swap deal, Egypt presidency says
- They also discussed a hostages-for-prisoners exchange deal
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
