A summit of international leaders in Cairo to discuss the Gaza war ended on Saturday night without consensus. No joint statement was issued, as Arab and Western leaders failed to even agree on language condemning Hamas’s attack on Israel.
An Egyptian commentator explained that a number of countries, including the United States, Great Britain and Germany, refused to accept a clause calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, the Egyptian government issued its own statement criticizing the international community for preferring to “manage the conflict and not end it permanently.”
“Temporary solutions and palliatives... do not live up to even the lowest aspirations” of the Palestinians, the statement added.
In response, Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, tweeted that the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 was “a wakeup call to the world to fight terrorism together.”
“The Islamist terror threat does not only endanger Israel, it endangers the states of the region and the whole world. It is unfortunate that even when faced with those horrific atrocities, there were some who had difficulty condemning terrorism or acknowledging the danger,” she wrote. “Israel will do what it has to do and expects the international community to recognize the righteous battle,” she continued.
Earlier in the day, the first shipment of humanitarian aid to Gaza entered the enclave via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Israeli officials have denied a New York Times report which quoted a U.N. official saying that the aid trucks had not been checked beforehand.
“All of the equipment was checked before going into Gaza,” said Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), adding that only water, food and medical equipment had been allowed in.
Rafah is the only border crossing into Gaza controlled by Egypt, not Israel. The crossing is not equipped to handle large numbers of commercial deliveries. Commercial deliveries to the Strip from Egypt are usually routed through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, which is adjacent to the Egypt-Gaza border.
The Kerem Shalom crossing has been closed by Israel for security reasons.
