Sisi Underscores to Abbas Importance of Maintaining Calm, Especially in Gaza

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, during a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, September 6, 2022. (Palestine’s embassy in Cairo)
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, during a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, September 6, 2022. (Palestine’s embassy in Cairo)
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Sisi Underscores to Abbas Importance of Maintaining Calm, Especially in Gaza

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, during a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, September 6, 2022. (Palestine’s embassy in Cairo)
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, during a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday, September 6, 2022. (Palestine’s embassy in Cairo)

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held talks with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas at al-Ittihadia Palace in Cairo on Tuesday.

Discussions touched on the developments of the Palestinian cause and providing support to the Palestinian people.

Presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said Sisi underlined the importance of joining efforts to support the Palestinian stance and maintain calm, especially in the Gaza Strip.

He affirmed his country’s unwavering support to the Palestinian cause to ensure realizing the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations based on the two-state solution and the establishment of the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the June 1967 borders.

Abbas, for his part, expressed appreciation for Egypt's tireless efforts in support of the Palestinian cause and hailed Cairo’s historical role, as well as its firm position to reach a just and comprehensive solution in this regard.

Abbas also underscored the deep and special Egyptian-Palestinian ties and keenness to continue consultation and coordination with Sisi on the overall situation in his country.

Egypt’s Chief of General Intelligence Major General Abbas Kamel, Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki, Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Hussein al-Sheikh, Head of the Palestinian General Intelligence Major General Majed Faraj, and the Palestinian Ambassador to Egypt Diab al-Louh attended the meeting.

According to the Egyptian presidency, both leaders agreed to continue consultation and coordination at the bilateral level and within the trilateral Egyptian-Jordanian-Palestinian coordination framework and other frameworks to follow-up on future steps and efforts to support the Palestinian cause.



Members of UK Jewish Group Say Can't 'Turn Blind Eye' to Gaza War

Children gather near a destroyed makeshift shelter following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia - AFP
Children gather near a destroyed makeshift shelter following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia - AFP
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Members of UK Jewish Group Say Can't 'Turn Blind Eye' to Gaza War

Children gather near a destroyed makeshift shelter following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia - AFP
Children gather near a destroyed makeshift shelter following an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia - AFP

Members of the largest organization representing British Jews have said they can no longer "turn a blind eye" to the war in Gaza, adding "Israel's soul is being ripped out".

In a major break with the Board of Deputies of British Jews' policy of supporting the Israeli leadership, 36 of its members criticized the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Gaza in an open letter published in the Financial Times.

"The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out," said the letter, signed by around one in eight members of the Board of Deputies, AFP reported.

"We cannot turn a blind eye or remain silent" about the loss of life since a two-month truce collapsed on March 18, as negotiations over the return of Israeli hostages broke down, the letter added.

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

"Israel's soul is being ripped out and we, members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, fear for the future of the Israel we love and have such close ties to," added the letter.

The signatories accused the "most extremist of Israeli governments" of "openly encouraging violence against Palestinians in the West Bank."

"We stand against the war. We acknowledge and mourn the loss of Palestinian life," they added.

A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies told the Guardian that other members would "no doubt put more emphasis on the fundamental responsibility of Hamas for this ghastly situation."

At least 1,691 Palestinians have been killed since the resumption of the Israeli offensive, bringing the death toll in Gaza since the start of the war to 51,065, according to Gaza's Hamas-controlled health ministry.