Egypt's Sisi calls to ensure Gazans not 'forcibly displaced'

Egypt's Sisi calls to ensure Gazans not 'forcibly displaced'
by AFP Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) May 30, 2024

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday urged the international community to ensure Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are not displaced from their war-ravaged territory.

"I... call on the international community to immediately provide for long-term humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip and to end the Israeli siege," Sisi told a forum of Arab leaders and Chinese officials in Beijing.

He also urged the international community to "stop any attempt at forcing Palestinians to forcibly flee their land".

China is this week hosting Sisi and several other Arab leaders for a forum at which discussions on the war in Gaza were expected.

Sisi's comments come after the Israeli army said Wednesday it had gained "operational control" over the strategic Philadelphi corridor along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

The corridor had served as a buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt, and Israeli troops patrolled it until 2005, when they were withdrawn as part of a broader disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

Its seizure comes weeks after Israeli forces took control of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 7 as their ground assault on the far-southern Gaza city began.

Sisi on Thursday said there was "no pathway to peace and stability in the region" without a "comprehensive approach to the Palestinian cause".

He called for a "serious and immediate commitment to the two-state solution and a recognition of the Palestinians' legitimate right to an independent state".

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,171 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

China's Xi to address Arab leaders seeking 'common voice' on Gaza
Beijing (AFP) May 30, 2024 - Chinese President Xi Jinping will on Thursday address Arab leaders and diplomats at a forum in Beijing, seeking to deepen ties with the region and speak with a "common voice" on the conflict in Gaza.

China's capital is this week hosting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and several other Arab leaders for a forum in which the war between Israel and Hamas is expected to be front and centre.

Beijing has good relations with Israel but has supported the Palestinian cause for decades and campaigned for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Meeting Sisi on Wednesday, Xi said he was "deeply pained" by the "extremely severe" situation in Gaza, where the Hamas-run territory's health ministry now says 36,171 people, mostly civilians, have been killed.

"The top priority task now is an immediate ceasefire, in order to avoid spillover of conflict, impact on regional peace and stability, and... to prevent a more serious humanitarian crisis," the Chinese leader said.

He said China was ready to work with Egypt to continue to assist the people of Gaza "and push for an early, comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue".

In recent years, Beijing has sought to build closer ties with Arab states and brokered a detente between Tehran and its long-time foe Saudi Arabia last year.

Beijing also hosted rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah last month for "in-depth and candid talks on promoting intra-Palestinian reconciliation".

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is among a host of regional leaders and diplomats attending this week's forum.

Beijing has said Xi's keynote speech at the opening ceremony on Thursday will be aimed at building "common consensus" between China and Arab states.

And analysts say Beijing can leverage the war in Gaza to boost its standing in the region, framing its efforts to end that conflict against perceived US inaction.

"Beijing sees the ongoing conflict as a golden opportunity to criticize the West's double standards on the international scene and call for an alternative global order," Camille Lons, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP.

"When speaking about the war in Gaza, it speaks... to a wider audience, and frames the conflict around the opposition between the West and the Global South," she added.