Arab leaders promise to work on reconstruction of Gaza and press for a ceasefire
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BAGHDAD — Arab leaders meeting at an annual summit in Baghdad said Saturday that they were trying to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and promised to contribute to the reconstruction of the territory once the war stops.
In March, an emergency Arab League summit in Cairo endorsed a plan for Gaza’s reconstruction without displacing its roughly 2 million residents.
The latest summit was attended by Arab leaders including Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who noted that even if Israel succeeds in normalizing relations with all Arab states, “a lasting, just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East will remain elusive unless a Palestinian state is established in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.” Egypt was the first Arab country to normalize ties with Israel.
Israel also struck two ports in Yemen on Friday that it said were used by the Houthi militant group to transfer weapons.
Among the guests were Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who called for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza and the flow of aid into the besieged territory. He said that the U.N. rejects any “forced displacement” of Palestinians.
Saturday’s summit comes two months after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with the Hamas militant group in January. In recent days, Israel has launched widespread attacks in the Gaza Strip and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a further escalation to pursue his aim of destroying Hamas.
“This genocide has reached levels of ugliness not seen in all conflicts throughout history,” Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Sudani said in a speech that called for allowing aid to flow into Gaza. Sudani added that Iraq will work on setting up an Arab fund for the reconstruction of the region in which Baghdad will pay $20 million for Gaza and a similar amount for Lebanon.
Sisi said that Egypt, in coordination with Qatar and the U.S., is “exerting intense efforts to reach a ceasefire” in Gaza, adding that the efforts led to the release of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander. He said that Egypt plans to hold an international conference for the reconstruction of Gaza “once the aggression stops.”
Freed hostage Edan Alexander is handed over to the Red Cross and then to Israeli forces before being flown to a hospital in Tel Aviv.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Hamas to abandon power in Gaza and, along with other militant groups, to hand over weapons to the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas’ Western-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007, and reconciliation attempts between the rival factions have repeatedly failed.
The Baghdad meeting was upstaged by President Trump’s tour in the region earlier in the week. Trump’s visit did not usher in a deal for a new ceasefire in Gaza as many had hoped, but he grabbed headlines by meeting with new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa — who once fought against U.S. forces in Iraq — and promising to remove U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria.
Al-Sharaa did not attend the summit in Baghdad, where Syria’s delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani. Iraqi Shiite militias and political factions are wary of Al-Sharaa’s past as a Sunni militant and had objected to his invitation to the summit.
During Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011, several Iraqi Shiite militias fought alongside the forces of then-Syrian President Bashar Assad, making Al-Sharaa today a particularly sensitive figure for them.
Abdul-Zahra writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.
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