Capitals (Union, Agencies)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi agreed with United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak yesterday on the importance of continuing and intensifying efforts aimed at reducing tension, protecting civilians, and preventing the deterioration of the security and humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian arena.
Egyptian presidential spokesman Counselor Ahmed Fahmy said in a statement that this came during a phone call that President Sisi received from Sunak, during which they discussed the military escalation in the Gaza Strip and its surroundings. During the call, Sisi indicated Egypt’s continued efforts to push for a path of calm and exercise the utmost levels of restraint to prevent slipping into a bloody path for which more innocent people will pay the price and whose consequences will extend to the entire region.
He stressed the need to ensure the regularity of humanitarian and relief services and aid for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
He stressed the importance of pushing towards dealing with the root causes of the crisis and striving to find the appropriate political horizon to reach a just, comprehensive and sustainable solution to the Palestinian issue in accordance with approved international references.
In addition, European Council President Charles Michel called yesterday for respect for international humanitarian law in the Gaza Strip, while stressing the need to allow basic supplies to reach the most vulnerable groups there. He said in a post on the “X” platform: “International law and international humanitarian law must be respected. Essential supplies must reach the most vulnerable groups.” In conjunction with this, the Norwegian Refugee Council called for the opening of humanitarian corridors to allow safe passage of humanitarian workers and relief supplies into Gaza.
Council Secretary-General Jan Egeland said in a statement in Oslo yesterday: “We call on the international community to urgently insist on humanitarian access and the protection of civilians.”
He said, “I wrote to foreign ministers in different parts of the world to call on them to secure periods of cessation of violence and humanitarian corridors to save lives immediately. Aid workers cannot do their work while bombs are falling everywhere.” He added, “We urgently call for increased support in order to better protect the lives of civilians and end the mass displacement of families.” Security-wise, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that the death toll in the Gaza Strip had risen to 1,417, including 447 children and 248 women.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health indicated that the number of wounded had risen to 6,268, stressing that ambulance crews were continuing to extract the dead and wounded from under the rubble of Palestinian homes and facilities that had been bombed.
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