Egyptian president holds talks with Abbas on ceasefire proposal

Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi yesterday held talks with Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas on Cairo’s proposal for a ceasefire between Gaza and Israel. Mr Abbas also met Hamas deputy chief Moussa Abu Marzouk who had discussions with a representative of the Egyptian leadership.

During his second visit in the past week, Quartet envoy Tony Blair also held talks with Mr Sisi and Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukri.

Mr Blair said Egypt’s proposal was intended to “allow all the issues that are at the heart of this problem . . . to be dealt with in a thorough and proper way. There are demands by Hamas in respect of Gaza and there are demands by Israel in respect of security.”

He said priority should be given to stopping the violence and saving lives and, once this was achieved, the other issues could be discussed.

Disagreement

Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior member of Mr Abbas’s Fatah movement, disagreed with Mr Blair’s assessment. Mr Ahmed, the Fatah figure who headed reconciliation talks with Hamas, said the aim of the meetings was to “crystallise a definite formula for an Egyptian initiative” or clarify the plan reportedly drafted by Mr Sisi and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, with no consultation with Hamas.

The text was accepted by Israel, which halted attacks on Gaza for several hours on Tuesday. However, it was rejected by Hamas, which conditioned its agreement on an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the opening of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and a halt to Israel’s attempts to torpedo the Fatah-Hamas unity government.

Mr Shoukri said the objective of the proposal was to provide an “opportunity to resume the peace process” and address the “situation in Gaza in the medium and long terms”.

The ceasefire proposal had received Arab and international support, Mr Shoukri added.

“This . . . support is what defines the value and importance of the Egyptian initiative. Criticisms of the initiative will be against the Arab and international consensus,” he said.

Egyptian responsibilities

Commentator Youssef Zaki said Egypt could not shirk its responsibilities for Gaza, which it ruled from 1948 until 1967, when Israel conquered Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. “It has been the destiny of Egypt to be at the core of the Palestinian problem since the creation of Israel,” he said.

Egypt fought wars with Israel in 1948-1949, 1956, 1967 and 1973. In 1979 Egypt became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel. Since then Cairo has brokered numerous ceasefires between Gaza and Israel, as warfare in Gaza risks spilling over into Egypt.

Egypt’s determination to end hostilities sharpened yesterday after citizens on its side of the frontier with Gaza were shaken by heavy Israeli bombardment of goods-smuggling tunnels beneath the border.

The walls of homes have cracked and windows have shattered from the impact of exploding Israeli rockets.