Amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Egypt reiterated its unequivocal support for the two-state solution as a framework for Middle East peace and announced an international summit in Cairo in November to coordinate the reconstruction of Gaza and strengthen the Middle East peace process.
Speaking in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where a summit took place this Monday to consolidate the cessation of the war in Gaza, the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, stressed that the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and an independent State must be the basis of any lasting agreement, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian State.
The president emphasized that justice and equal rights must underpin any agreement and that the Palestinian people share, like everyone, the right to freedom and self-determination. Furthermore, he recalled that peace does not correspond only to governments, but must be a construction of the people, in which the enemies of yesterday can become partners of tomorrow.
“Peace is a strategic option for Egypt and for Muslim nations,” said the 72-year-old former military man who was twice re-elected to the position of president.
The Cairo Summit and the reconstruction of Gaza
The president announced that next month, Cairo will host an international summit focused on the recovery and reconstruction of Gaza, devastated by years of conflict.
The objective is to turn the ceasefire into a path of sustainable development and ensure a framework of international cooperation for the reconstruction of essential infrastructure, hospitals, schools and basic services, while guaranteeing the entry of humanitarian aid and access to fuel and medicine.
Official sources indicated that the summit will seek to consolidate financing agreements and establish deadlines and those responsible for the implementation of projects.
More than five years and $53 billion will be needed to rebuild the devastated Gaza Strip, bombed incessantly by Israel since October 2023, according to the plan presented by Egypt at the summit of Arab League leaders, which took place in Cairo last March.
Signing of the peace document
Earlier, El-Sisi and his counterparts Donald Trump, the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Qatari emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, signed the peace document as guarantors of a compromise reached last week.
About twenty international leaders participated in this Monday’s conference, including from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
Despite the high-level meeting and the signing of the document, many questions remain about the subsequent phase of the agreement, especially the fate of Hamas’ weapons and the governance of the enclave.
Trump’s plan, who already took Air Force One to return to Washington this Monday, offers the possibility of a Palestinian state, but only after a long transition period in Gaza and a reform process by the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes Palestinian independence, while Trump did not mention a two-state solution at the summit.
In his speech, the American president called for a new era of harmony in the Middle East, saying that the region has “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave behind old disputes and bitter hatreds.”
In turn, the head of the White House, considered by Tel Aviv to be the best friend of the Jewish State, urged leaders to “declare that our future will not be governed by the struggles of past generations.”
Palestinian political prisoners mutilated in Israeli jails
Hamas denounced that the Palestinian prisoners released this Monday by Israel within the framework of the ceasefire agreement for the Gaza Strip have suffered “the most horrendous psychological and physical torture.”
The group assures that the prisoners themselves have reported this mistreatment and has urged international humanitarian and human rights organizations to investigate these Israeli actions and prosecute war criminals in international courts.
Instead, Hamas emphasizes that “the resistance has treated enemy prisoners in accordance with its Islamic and national values, avoiding endangering their lives, while the occupation army continued to torture and humiliate Palestinian prisoners in its prisons.”
For his part, the general director of the Al Shifa Hospital, the most important in the Gaza Strip, Mohamad abú Salmiya, assured that the prisoners have arrived “with signs of torture” and even with “amputated limbs,” according to the news portal. Filastin.
Some of the released prisoners reported that the mistreatment intensified in the hours before their release. Mahmoud abu Salá, detained in July by Israeli forces near the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, said that “they tortured us until the last moment and tied us from 3:00 a.m. until the moment of our release.”
In its statement, Hamas indicated that the release of the approximately 10,000 Palestinian prisoners who remain in Israeli prisons “will continue to be a national priority of the resistance.”
