U.S. President Donald Trump and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, will co-chair the peace summit taking place on Monday afternoon in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
European leaders — including France’s Emmanuel Macron, the U.K.’s Keir Starmer, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, along with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and others — will attend the summit, which comes after a ceasefire agreement took effect in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
The summit aims to “end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East, and usher in a new phase of regional security and stability,” according to a statement late Saturday by the Egyptian presidency.
A signing ceremony of the “Middle East peace plan,” the deal agreed upon by Israel and Hamas to end fighting in Gaza, is expected to take place during the meeting.
But neither Israel nor Hamas will reportedly attend the summit.
On Monday morning, Hamas is expected to release a group of Israeli hostages in exchange for the liberation of some prisoners by Israel, in accordance with the ceasefire deal reached onThursday. At the same time as the exchange, Trump will travel to Israel, deliver a speech at the Knesset, and then head to Sharm El-Sheikh to join the summit.
On Sunday morning, trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed the border into the Gaza Strip after the U.N.’s humanitarian office said Israel had allowed aid to again flow to the enclave, provided the ceasefire agreement holds.
European Council President António Costa will join the peace summit in Egypt and “will represent the European Union at the ceremony of the Middle East Peace Plan,” according to a statement by his spokesperson on Sunday.
“The plan offers a real chance to build a just and sustainable peace, and the EU is fully committed to supporting these efforts and contributing to its implementation,” the spokesperson added.
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