Arab States, EU Agree on Need for Two-State Solution to Gaza Crisis

27 November 2023, Spain, Barcelona: (L-R) Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit pose for a family photo after meeting in Barcelona to discuss ways to end the conflict in Gaza. (SPA)
27 November 2023, Spain, Barcelona: (L-R) Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit pose for a family photo after meeting in Barcelona to discuss ways to end the conflict in Gaza. (SPA)
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Arab States, EU Agree on Need for Two-State Solution to Gaza Crisis

27 November 2023, Spain, Barcelona: (L-R) Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit pose for a family photo after meeting in Barcelona to discuss ways to end the conflict in Gaza. (SPA)
27 November 2023, Spain, Barcelona: (L-R) Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit pose for a family photo after meeting in Barcelona to discuss ways to end the conflict in Gaza. (SPA)

Arab states and the European Union agreed at a meeting in Spain on Monday that a two-state solution was the answer to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell saying the Palestinian Authority should rule Gaza.

Borrell said all EU members attending the meeting of Mediterranean nations in Barcelona and almost all attendees overall had agreed on the need for a two-state solution.

The Palestinian Authority must hold elections and improve its functioning but is the only "viable solution" to the future leadership of Gaza, currently run by Hamas, to avoid a "power vacuum", he said.

A current four-day truce is the first halt in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages back into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

In response to that attack, Israel bombarded the enclave and mounted a ground offensive in the north. Some 14,800 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza health authorities say, and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Hamas said it wanted to extend the truce. An Israeli official told Reuters the onus was on Hamas to produce a new list of 10 hostages it could free on Tuesday in exchange for that becoming an additional truce day.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said the Palestinian people should decide who rules them, and that any talk of administration of Gaza after the conflict should focus on the West Bank and Gaza as one entity.

A two-state solution envisages a state for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside Israel.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said the Palestinian Authority, which lost control of the Gaza Strip in a 2007 power struggle with Hamas, had no need to return to Gaza, adding: "We have been there all the time, we have 60,000 public workers there."

The three were speaking at the conclusion of a short meeting of the Forum for the Union of the Mediterranean in Barcelona, a 43-member grouping of European, North African and Middle Eastern countries.

Israel did not attend the summit. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan spoke as a representative of a group of ministers from the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Borrell said he hoped the truce that began on Friday would last "a few more days".

Palestinian Foreign Minister al-Maliki said Qatar, Egypt, the United States and the European Union were working to extend the truce, warning if it was not extended, the death toll would double because Gaza's population was now concentrated in the south of the strip.

"We have an opportunity today that will end tonight, to extend the ceasefire... I count on the support of my colleagues... for us to all leave here with a loud and strong voice that can be heard in all parts of the world: no to the war, yes to the ceasefire," he said.

Jordan's Safadi added, however: "Some among us are still refusing to call for a ceasefire... We demand it be implemented immediately."



Trump Says He Expects Hamas Decision in 24 Hours on 'Final' Peace Proposal

Children check the destruction at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Children check the destruction at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Trump Says He Expects Hamas Decision in 24 Hours on 'Final' Peace Proposal

Children check the destruction at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Children check the destruction at Mustafa Hafez school, sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war, after the school was hit during an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City, on July 3, 2025, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours whether the Palestinian group Hamas has agreed to accept what he has called a "final proposal" for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza.

Trump said on Tuesday Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalize a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war.

He was asked on Friday if Hamas had agreed to the latest ceasefire deal framework, and said: "We'll see what happens, we are going to know over the next 24 hours."

A source close to Hamas said on Thursday the group sought guarantees that the new US-backed ceasefire proposal would lead to the end of Israel's war in Gaza.

Two Israeli officials said those details were still being worked out. Dozens of Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza authorities.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show.

Gaza's health ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations.

A previous two month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Trump earlier this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN and Palestinians as a proposal of "ethnic cleansing."