World leaders attend Cairo peace summit to 'de-escalate' Israel-Hamas war

CAIRO, Oct 21 (Agencies): Leaders and top officials from more than a dozen countries have gathered in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for a conference to discuss ways to "de-escalate" the Israel-Hamas war amid growing fears of a wider Middle East conflict.
Dubbed the Cairo Peace Summit, representatives from countries including Jordan, France, Germany, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Qatar and South Africa are attending the one-day meeting on Saturday, together with United Nations and European Union officials.
In his opening remarks, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi invited leaders to come to an agreement for a road map to end the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip and revive a path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The road map's goals included the delivery of aid to Gaza and agreeing a ceasefire, followed by negotiations leading to a two-state solution, he said.
"All civilian lives matter," Jordan's King Abdullah said, addressing the summit. "The relentless bombing campaign under way in Gaza as we speak is cruel and unconscionable on every level. It is collective punishment of a besieged and helpless people. It is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. It is a war crime."
"Anywhere else, attacking civilian infrastructure and deliberately starving an entire population of food, water, electricity and basic necessities would be condemned. Accountability would be enforced … but not in Gaza," he added.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended the summit and asked for humanitarian corridors to be opened. But the absence of any official from the Israeli side has dampened expectations for what the summit can achieve.
Al Jazeera's diplomatic editor James Bays said that while it is good for these countries to propose a road map out of this crisis, "Is Israel going to listen to that road map?"
"Israel is not represented. It's Israeli generals and the Israeli prime minister and the Israeli war cabinet who have the decisions on what to do militarily, and you see as the speeches have been going on, fresh bombardment of Gaza," Bays noted.
Egypt called for the international conference last week to discuss the "developments and future of the Palestinian cause". Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the meeting would seek an "international concurrence" on the need for de-escalation and humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, UN chief Antonio Guterres pleaded Saturday for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the war between Israel and Gaza's Hamas, demanding global "action to end this godawful nightmare".
Addressing a peace summit in Cairo as the war raged into its third week, Guterres said the tiny Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people was living through "a humanitarian catastrophe" with thousands dead and more than a million people displaced.
His remarks came just hours after a first contingent of aid trucks rumbled into southern Gaza, which Guterres said needed to be rapidly scaled up, with "much more" help sent through.
The Palestinians need "a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed", he told the Cairo "Summit for Peace" which was attended by many Arab leaders.
Diplomatic efforts have so far focused on getting humanitarian aid into the war-torn enclave where Israel has imposed a total siege, cutting off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and food.
A BBC report adds: Hamas has released two American hostages, Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie Raanan, who were kidnapped in its attack on southern Israel.
They are the first hostages to be freed since fighters from the Palestinian group carried out a surprise attack on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people and taking about 200 others hostage. Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, freed the hostages "for humanitarian reasons" after Qatari mediation efforts, its spokesman Abu Ubaida said on Friday.
The Israeli prime minister's office confirmed that Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie Raanan had been released and were in the country.
US President Joe Biden in a statement thanked Qatar and Israel for their partnership in securing the pair's release.
President Joe Biden said Friday that he believed Hamas's brutal attack on Israel two weeks ago was aimed at disrupting warming ties between the country and Saudi Arabia.
"One of the reasons why they acted like they did... why Hamas moved on Israel... (was) because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis," Biden told guests at a campaign fundraiser.
"The Saudis wanted to recognize Israel... unite the Middle East," he said.
Momentum toward a landmark US-brokered deal to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia -- guardian of Islam's two holiest sites -- was shattered by the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on Israel.
Earlier, Hollywood A-listers including Joaquin Phoenix, Cate Blanchett and Susan Sarandon have urged US President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas.
In a letter released on Friday, dozens of entertainment figures called on Biden to facilitate an end to the bombing of Gaza and the release of all captives held by Hamas. "We ask that, as President of the United States, you call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost," the celebrities wrote in the letter organised by artists4ceasefire.org.