Cairo Summit ends without breakthrough for Gaza aid or condemnation of Hamas

TEL AVIV: A summit of international leaders in Cairo to discuss the Gaza war ended on Saturday night without any consensus towards averting an Israeli ground invasion.

No joint statement was issued as Arab and Western leaders failed to even agree on language condemning Hamas's attack on Israeli communities. An Egyptian commentator explained that a number of countries including the United States, Great Britain and Germany refused to accept a clause calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Instead, the Egyptian government issued its own statement criticizing the international community for preferring to "manage the conflict and not end it permanently."

A "temporary solutions and palliatives... do not live up to even the lowest aspirations" of the Palestinians, the statement added. In response, Lior Haiat, a spokesperson for Israel's Foreign Ministry said on X -- formerly called Twitter -- that the Hamas attack of Oct 7 was "a wakeup call to the world to fight terrorism together."

Wrote Haiat, "The Islamist terror threat does not only endanger Israel, it endangers the states of the region and the whole world. It is unfortunate that even when faced with those horrific atrocities, there were some who had difficulty condemning terrorism or acknowledging the danger. Israel will do what it has to do and expects the international community to recognize the righteous battle."

Earlier in the day, the first trucks delivering humanitarian aid arrived in Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Israeli officials denied a New York Times report that quoted a UN official saying that trucks entering the Strip had not been checked beforehand.

"All of the equipment was checked before going into Gaza," said Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). COGAT, a unit of Israel's Defence Ministry, said that only water, food and medical equipment had been allowed in.

Rafah is the only border crossing out of Gaza controlled by Egypt, not Israel. The crossing is not equipped to handle large numbers of commercial deliveries.

Commercial deliveries to the Strip from Egypt are routed through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, which is adjacent to the Egypt-Gaza border.

The Kerem Shalom crossing is closed for security reasons. Israel has been striking Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip since an October 7 assault by Hamas that caught Israelis off-guard. Fighting raged for days as the Israel Defence Forces initially struggled to clear out the terrorists. More than 1,400 Israelis were killed, and over 4,800 more were injured. Over 200 hostages were taken to Gaza.