Egypt, China Stress Importance of an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing welcomes his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Beijing on Wednesday (Egyptian Presidency)
Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing welcomes his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Beijing on Wednesday (Egyptian Presidency)
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Egypt, China Stress Importance of an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing welcomes his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Beijing on Wednesday (Egyptian Presidency)
Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing welcomes his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Beijing on Wednesday (Egyptian Presidency)

Egypt and China on Wednesday agreed on the crucial importance of reaching an urgent and immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and rejected any forced displacement of the Palestinians outside their land.
During talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi affirmed that the implementation of the two-state solution is the fundamental guarantor to restore stability and establish peace and security in the region.
China’s President received the Egyptian President at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, where an official reception ceremony was held, according to Egyptian presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy.
The ceremony was followed by extensive talks focusing on ways to cultivate closer bilateral relations.
The two presidents exchanged views on regional and international developments. In this regard, the Chinese president lauded Cairo’s pivotal role and unyielding efforts to reach calm and ensure the delivery of desperately-needed humanitarian aid.
Sisi then emphasized the urgent and imperative need to end the war in Gaza, underscoring the gravity of the Israeli military operations in the Palestinian city of Rafah and their severe humanitarian, security and political consequences.
Egypt repeatedly expresses its concerns about the devastating humanitarian impact of the Israeli military operations in Rafah on over 1.4 million Palestinians and the broader implications for regional peace and stability.
Cairo has called on Israel to open all land crossings between Israel and Gaza.
The Sisi-Xi Jinping summit discussed the situation in the African continent and ways to forge closer cooperation between the two countries. Sisi was keen on affirming that the utmost priority is placed on safeguarding Egypt’s water security.
Since 2011, Ethiopia has been building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile tributary. Addis Ababa claims the dam's primary purpose is electricity production to relieve its acute energy shortage.
But Cairo and Khartoum fear that the GERD will impact their share of the Nile waters. They have been demanding that Ethiopia join them in signing a binding legal agreement that manages the filling and operation of the dam.
Egypt has lately called on Ethiopia to submit impact technical studies of the dam. It also accused Addis Ababa of taking unilateral measures that contribute to tension and instability in the region.
Last December, Egypt announced that four-month of revived negotiations over GERD had failed to yield any results.
In Beijing, Sisi and Xi Jinping witnessed the signing ceremony of a number of cooperation agreements, including the joint development plan of the “Belt and Road” Initiative and strengthening collaboration in technological innovation and IT as well as a multitude of other areas of cooperation.
The Egyptian president's visit to the Chinese capital is his eighth in the last ten years.
The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) has revealed that the trade exchange between Egypt and China amounted to $13.9 billion in 2023, compared to $16.6 billion in 2022.
In Beijing, Sisi also met on Wednesday the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, Zhao Leji.
The two officials underscored the remarkable momentum the Egyptian-Chinese relations have gained across all fronts, materializing in the form of key cooperation projects and programs between the two countries.
The two sides valued the distinguished relations between their parliaments and resulted in the formation of the Egyptian-Chinese Parliamentary Friendship Group.
The chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress affirmed that his country holds in high esteem its historical relations with Egypt, emphasizing China's keenness to consolidate cooperation.
Leji also valued Egypt's pivotal role both internationally and regionally, particularly its efforts to advance peace and stability in the Middle East, in addition to its steady progress in achieving national development.
Sisi then visited the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital, Beijing, where he laid a wreath on the memorial.
Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, praised the “historic ties between the Arab countries and China, based on mutual trust and respect.”
This came during his meeting, on Wednesday, with the Chinese Vice President, Han Zheng, on the sidelines of the visit of the AL Secretary-General to Beijing to attend the tenth session of the ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum which will be held on Thursday in the Chinese capital.



Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israel Orders Evacuation of Area Designated as Humanitarian Zone in Gaza

 A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
A picture taken in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip shows smoke billowing during Israeli army operations in areas east of Khan Younis city on July 26, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

Israel’s military ordered the evacuation Saturday of a crowded part of Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants in Khan Younis, including parts of Muwasi, a makeshift tent camp where thousands are seeking refuge.

The order comes in response to rocket fire that Israel says originates from the area. It's the second evacuation issued in a week in an area designated for Palestinians fleeing other parts of Gaza. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel's punishing air and ground campaign.

On Monday, after the evacuation order, multiple Israeli airstrikes hit around Khan Younis, killing at least 70 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, citing figures from Nasser Hospital.

The area is part of a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) “humanitarian zone” to which Israel has been telling Palestinians to flee to throughout the war. Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. About 1.8 million Palestinians are sheltering there, according to Israel's estimates. That's more than half Gaza’s pre-war population of 2.3 million.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,100 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The UN estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.

The war began with an assault by Hamas fighters on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.