Egypt, UN Agree on Need for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres holds talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace (Egyptian Presidency)
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres holds talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace (Egyptian Presidency)
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Egypt, UN Agree on Need for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres holds talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace (Egyptian Presidency)
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres holds talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace (Egyptian Presidency)

Egypt and the UN on Sunday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the exchange of captives, and the delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid to relieve those afflicted in the Gaza Strip, where famine besieges entire people, according to Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who is currently visiting Cairo.

On Saturday, the UN Chief visited a number of wounded Palestinians receiving treatment in Al Arish General Hospital, in addition to the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

During his visit, Guterres held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace.

The meeting addressed many international and regional issues, with emphasis on developments in the Gaza Strip. It was attended by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service Major General Abbas Kamel, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini and UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt Elena Panova.

Presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy said views were aligned on the gravity of the situation and the need to avoid fueling factors that could widen the scope of the conflict.

Both sides completely and categorically rejected the displacement of Palestinians from their lands, also rejecting and warning against any military operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, given its catastrophic consequences on the already dire situation.

Sisi and Guterres emphasized the inevitability of the two-state solution as the only path to achieve justice, security, and stability in the region, and the need to create conditions conducive for its implementation.

During the meeting, the Egyptian President appreciated the positions of the UN Secretary-General on the ongoing crisis, his keenness to adhere to the principles of international law and international humanitarian law, and his continued activity to urge the international community to act to end the war and protect civilians.

Sisi then stressed that it was important for the Security Council to assume its responsibilities in that regard and emphasized the danger of the suspension of funding by some countries to UNRWA, which is considered collective punishment of innocent Palestinians.

An Egyptian statement said Guterres expressed his great appreciation for Egypt's regional role as a pillar for stability, praising its efforts to advance a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, as well as its commitment to keeping the Rafah border crossing open continuously over the past months since the start of the current crisis.

The UN chief referred to his visit to the Rafah crossing on Saturday and praised the huge Egyptian effort for leading and operating the process of delivering aid to the people of Gaza, despite the severe obstacles and difficulties.

He reiterated the importance of a ceasefire for humanitarian purposes to enable the delivery and effective distribution of aid to the people of the Gaza Strip.

Later during a joint press conference with Shoukry, Guterres said that delivering the necessary aid to famine-threatened Gaza “requires Israel removing the remaining obstacles and chokepoints to relief.”

He explained that the only effective and efficient way to deliver heavy goods to meet Gaza's humanitarian needs is by road and includes an exponential increase in commercial deliveries.

“Sending in large quantities of aid requires Israel to remove the remaining obstacles and choke points to relief,” Guterres said.

He issued a renewed plea for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza from Rafah, where about 1.5 million internally displaced Palestinians reside.

Guterres said the United Nations was working hard to sustain funding for its agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which he called the backbone for humanitarian aid inside Gaza.

Shoukry called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of detainees, stressing the need for more humanitarian aid to be brought into the Gaza Strip. “We have exchanged views with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on the ceasefire in Gaza and the introduction of aid,” he said.



UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
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UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)

More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad on Dec. 8, including 800,000 people displaced inside the country and 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.

“Since the fall of the regime in Syria, we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.

“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.

Last January, the UN's high commissioner for refugees urged the international community to back Syria's reconstruction efforts to facilitate the return of millions of refugees.

“Lift the sanctions, open up space for reconstruction. If we don't do it now at the beginning of the transition, we waste a lot of time,” Grandi told a press conference in Ankara, after returning from a trip in Lebanon and Syria.

At a meeting in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Türkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”

The meeting's final statement also pledged support for Syria's new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”

Meanwhile, AFP reported on Tuesday that displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods in Homs, where rebels first took up arms to fight Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011, only to find them in ruins.

In Homs, the Syrian military had besieged and bombarded opposition areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin was killed in a bombing in 2012.

“The house is burned down, there are no windows, no electricity,” said Duaa Turki at her dilapidated home in Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

“We removed the rubble, laid a carpet” and moved in, said the 30-year-old mother of four.

“Despite the destruction, we're happy to be back. This is our neighborhood and our land.”

Duaa’s husband spends his days looking for a job, she said, while they hope humanitarian workers begin distributing aid to help the family survive.