Egypt, US discuss efforts to reach Gaza cease-fire

By Fayez Abdulsalam

CAIRO (AA) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi held talks in Cairo on Sunday with CIA Director William Burns to discuss efforts to reach a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

The talks dwelt on developments on the ground in Gaza and the necessity to intensify efforts to stop military escalation there, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

Sisi underlined the need to allow sufficient aid into Gaza, where humanitarian conditions amount to a famine, the statement said.

He also called for working to reach a settlement to the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution and warned against an expansion of the Gaza conflict in a way that harms regional security and stability.

According to the statement, the two sides agreed on the need to protect civilians and rejected any forced displacement of Palestinians from their land.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a Gaza cease-fire resumed in Egypt on Sunday.

A Hamas delegation is set to arrive in Egypt on Sunday for Gaza cease-fire talks, the Egyptian state-run Al-Qahera News channel reported.

US President Joe Biden recently sent two special letters to Sisi and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani related to accelerating cease-fire negotiations, a US administration official said Friday.

The official said Biden called on Egypt and Qatar in his letters to "pressure Hamas to accelerate cease-fire negotiations."

There was no comment from Cairo or Doha on the report.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack in early October by Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

Nearly 33,200 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 75,900 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last week asked it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi