Leaders and top officials from more than a dozen countries have gathered in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for a conference to discuss ways to \u201cde-escalate\u201d the Israel-Hamas war amid growing fears of a wider Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dubbed the Cairo Summit for Peace, representatives from countries including Jordan, France, Germany, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Qatar and South Africa are attending the one-day meeting on Saturday, together with United Nations and European Union officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his opening remarks, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi invited leaders to come to an agreement for a road map to end the \u201chumanitarian catastrophe\u201d in the Gaza Strip and revive a path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The plan\u2019s goals included the delivery of aid to Gaza and agreeing to a ceasefire, followed by negotiations leading to a two-state solution, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The absence of any representative from the Israeli side, and any senior US official, has dampened expectations for what the summit can achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The summit takes place as Israel readies a ground assault on Gaza, after weeks of aerial attacks following the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,400 people in Israel. More than 4,200 Palestinians have been killed in Israel\u2019s counteroffensive, amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leaders and top officials from more than a dozen countries have gathered in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for a conference to discuss ways to \u201cde-escalate\u201d the Israel-Hamas war amid growing fears of a wider Middle East conflict. Dubbed the Cairo Summit for Peace, representatives from countries including Jordan, France, Germany, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":97618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[5668,5669],"class_list":["post-97617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cairo-peace-conference","tag-hamas-israel-conflict"],"yoast_head":"\n