CAIRO: Arab leaders at a Cairo summit on Saturday condemned Israeli bombardment of Gaza as Europeans said civilians should be shielded, but with Israeli and US officials absent there was no agreement towards containing the violence.

Egypt, which called the meeting and hosted it, said it had hoped participants would call for peace and resume efforts to resolve the decades-long Palestinian quest for statehood.

But the meeting ended without leaders and foreign ministers agreeing a joint statement.

United Nations Secretary Gene­ral Antonio Guterres pleaded for a “humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza to end “this godawful nightmare”.

UN chief pleads for ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ to end ‘this godawful nightmare’

Guterres said the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people was living through “a humanitarian catastrophe”, with thousands dead and more than a million displaced.

“The grievances of the Palestinian people are legitimate and long” after “56 years of occupation with no end in sight”, the UN chief said.

He stressed that the Hamas raid “can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people”.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday Israel’s air and missile strikes had killed 4,385 Palestinians since the Hamas raid on Oct 7.

While Arab and other Muslim states called for an immediate end to Israel’s offensive, Western countries mostly voiced more modest goals such as humanitarian relief for civilians.

Jordan’s King Abdullah denounced global silence about Israel’s attacks, which have killed thousands in Hamas-ruled Gaza and made over a million homeless, and urged an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

“The message the Arab world is hearing is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones,” he said, adding he was outraged and grieved by acts of violence waged against innocent civilians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said Palestinians would not be displaced or driven off their land.

“We won’t leave, we won’t leave,” he told the summit.

France called for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza that it said could lead to a ceasefire. Britain and Germany both urged Israel’s military to show restraint and Italy said it was important to avoid escalation.

The United States only sent its Cairo charge d’affaires, who did not address the meeting in public.

European Council President Charles Michel said the main goal of the summit was “to listen to each other”.

However, “we understand that we need to work more together” on issues including the humanitarian situation, avoiding a regional escalation and a Palestinian-Israeli peace process, he added.

Ceasefire

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.

Arab states fear the offensive could drive Gaza residents permanently from their homes and even into neighbouring states _ as happened when Palestinians left or were forced from their homes in the 1948 war following

Opposition to Sinai relocation

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said his country opposed 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 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 from the West Bank.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2023