Egyptian president reaffirms efforts to support Palestinians

By Ibrahim Al-Khazen

CAIRO (AA) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Tuesday spoke over the phone with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas and reaffirmed his country’s efforts to support the Palestinian people “on all levels.”

In a statement, the Egyptian presidency said that al-Sisi reiterated his support to “preserve the rights of the Palestinian people and to achieve their legitimate aspirations for the establishment of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Abbas, for his part, praised Egypt's “steadfast position” in support of the Palestinian people, the statement said.

The two also exchanged Eid al-Fitr greetings.

For months, Egypt, alongside Qatar, has been leading indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and a prisoner swap deal between the two sides.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas, which killed nearly 1,200 people.

Over 33,300 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 76,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war, now in its 186th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in January issued an interim ruling that ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul