Middle East Summit in Cairo discusses war in Gaza

Two weeks after the start of the war in Gaza, numerous heads of state and government from the Middle East region, as well as representatives from the UN and the EU, will meet in Cairo on Saturday, at the invitation of Egypt. In addition to the Head of State Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah II of Jordan, the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel, and the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are expected to participate in the “Summit for Peace”.

The Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman, as well as the Foreign Ministers of Germany, Great Britain and France, as well as the EU foreign policy representative Josep Borrell, also want to participate. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will also come to Cairo. Israel is not there. A Foreign Office spokesman said they were not invited and would not attend.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says she hopes the summit will send a signal against a regional expansion of the war in Gaza. It’s about how to “prevent a conflagration and how to avoid a civil catastrophe” after Hamas’ major attack on Israel and the closure of the Gaza Strip, the Green politician said.

Islamic Hamas invaded Israeli border cities with hundreds of terrorists on October 7 and carried out a massacre with 1,400 deaths. Around 200 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip, including foreigners. Since then, Israel has bombed Hamas positions in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled south. The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7 has risen to 4,137, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.