During a Cairo summit on Saturday, Arab leaders expressed their condemnation of the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. European leaders also emphasized the need to protect civilians. However, the absence of both Israel and senior US officials at the summit prevented any consensus on measures to contain the ongoing violence.
Egypt, the initiator and host of the summit, had anticipated that the participants would unite in a call for peace and a resumption of efforts to address the longstanding Palestinian aspiration for statehood. However, the summit concluded without leaders and foreign ministers reaching a consensus on a joint statement. This comes two weeks into a conflict that has resulted in thousands of casualties and has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza enclave, home to 2.3 million people.
During the talks, diplomats held limited optimism about achieving a breakthrough. Israel had been preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza with the aim of eliminating the militant Palestinian group Hamas, which had carried out an attack on Israeli towns on October 7, resulting in the deaths of 1,400 people.
As per Gaza's Health Ministry, Israel's air and missile strikes have caused the loss of at least 4,385 Palestinian lives since the initiation of the conflict triggered by the Hamas attack.
While Arab and Muslim nations called for an immediate cessation of Israel's offensive, Western countries primarily expressed more modest objectives, such as providing humanitarian relief to civilians.
King Abdullah of Jordan strongly criticized what he referred to as the global silence surrounding Israel's attacks. These attacks have resulted in the deaths of thousands in Hamas-governed Gaza and left over a million people homeless. He also emphasized the need for a balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared that the Palestinians would not be displaced or driven off their land.
France proposed creating a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to potentially secure a ceasefire. Both Britain and Germany called for restraint from the Israeli military, and Italy stressed the importance of preventing escalation. The United States, a key ally of Israel, sent its Cairo charge d'affaires to the summit without addressing the meeting publicly.
European Council President Charles Michel noted that the primary goal of the summit was to facilitate mutual understanding, with a recognition of the need for greater collaboration on humanitarian issues, preventing regional escalation, and advancing the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
In response to the recent deadly attack by the Iranian-backed Hamas militant group on October 7, Israel has expressed its intent to eliminate the group. Israel also advised Palestinians in Gaza to move south for their safety, despite the limited geographic size of the coastal strip and continued Israeli airstrikes in the southern region.
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