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Cairo Peace Summit ends without Gaza breakthrough

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians would not be displaced or driven off their land.
Last Updated : 21 October 2023, 11:57 IST

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The meeting was meant to explore how to head off a wider regional war. But diplomats knew public agreement would be hard because of sensitivities around calls for a ceasefire, whether to include mention of Hamas' attack and Israel's right to defend itself.


Arab states fear the offensive could drive Gaza residents permanently from their homes and even into neighbouring states - as happened when Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the 1948 war following Israel's creation.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said his country opposed what he called the displacement of Palestinians into Egypt's largely desert Sinai region, adding the only solution was an independent Palestinian state.

Egypt fears insecurity near the border with Gaza in northeastern Sinai, where it faced an Islamist insurgency that peaked after 2013 and has now largely been suppressed.

Jordan, home to many Palestinian refugees and their descendants, fears a wider conflagration would give Israel the chance to expel Palestinians en masse from the West Bank.

King Abdullah said forced displacement "is a war crime according to international law, and a red line for all of us."

Shortly before the summit opening, trucks loaded with humanitarian aid began entering the Rafah crossing into Gaza. Egypt has been trying for days to channel humanitarian relief to Gaza through the crossing, the one access point not controlled by Israel.

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Published 21 October 2023, 11:57 IST

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