Egypt Says Gaza Truce 'Key' to Preventing Regional War

Palestinian children stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Palestinian children stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
TT

Egypt Says Gaza Truce 'Key' to Preventing Regional War

Palestinian children stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Palestinian children stand at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, August 14, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said in Beirut Friday that a Gaza ceasefire was the "key" to preventing the region from slipping into all-out war.

His visit comes after Gaza ceasefire talks, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, restarted in Doha on Thursday, and follows trips to Beirut this week by US envoy Amos Hochstein and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne.

Cairo, Doha and Washington are making every effort to quickly reach a Gaza deal "that leads to an immediate ceasefire, an end to the killing of civilians, and a prisoner and hostage exchange", Abdelatty said after meeting his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib.

"This is the key to the start of the solution in this region and the start of de-escalation," he said.

According to AFP, Lebanon's Hezbollah has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7.

But the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran late last month in an attack blamed on Israel, hours after an Israeli strike killed a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon, has sent diplomats scrambling to avert a wider conflict, after Iran and Hezbollah vowed to respond.

Abdelatty expressed hope for "good intentions and the political will to reach this urgent deal" in Gaza, which he said would lead to "reducing the level of tension in the region, and de-escalation".

Cairo would "make every possible effort to spare Lebanon and its brotherly people the woes of any uncalculated escalation", he added.

The cross-border violence has killed some 570 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters -- one of them on Friday -- but including at least 118 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.

Hezbollah and Israel fought a devastating war in 2006.



UN: Over 30,000 Crossed into Syria from Lebanon in Past Days

People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
TT

UN: Over 30,000 Crossed into Syria from Lebanon in Past Days

People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

Well over 30,000 people, mainly Syrians, have crossed into Syria from Lebanon in the past 72 hours, the UN refugee agency said on Friday, amid an escalating conflict between Israeli forces and Hezbollah that has killed hundreds of people in Lebanon.
About 80% of those crossings are Syrians and about 20% are Lebanese, said the UNHCR representative in Syria, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, adding that about half are children and adolescents, and that men are making the crossing in smaller numbers than women.
"They are crossing from a country at war to one that has faced a crisis conflict for 13 years," an extremely difficult choice, he told a news conference.
"We will have to see over the next few days how many more do so," added the representative.