Cairo Peace Summit ends without Gaza breakthrough

Arab leaders at a Cairo summit on Saturday condemned Israeli bombardment of Gaza as Europeans said civilians should be shielded, but with Israel and senior U.S. officials absent there was no agreement towards containing the violence, Reuters reports.

Egypt, which called the meeting and hosted it, said it had hoped participants would call for peace and resume efforts to resolve the decades-long Palestinian quest for statehood.

But the meeting ended without leaders and foreign ministers agreeing a joint statement, two weeks into a conflict that has killed thousands and visited a humanitarian catastrophe on the blockaded Gaza enclave of 2.3 million people.

Diplomats attending the talks had not been optimistic of a breakthrough, with Israel preparing a ground invasion of Gaza aimed at wiping out the militant Palestinian group Hamas that rampaged through its towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people.

Gaza's Health Ministry said on Saturday Israel's air and missile strikes had killed at least 4,385 Palestinians since the Hamas attack.

While Arab and Muslim states called for an immediate end to Israel's offensive, Western countries mostly voiced more modest goals such as humanitarian relief for civilians.

Jordan's King Abdullah denounced what he termed global silence about Israel's attacks, which have killed thousands in Hamas-ruled Gaza and made over a million homeless, and urged an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The message the Arab world is hearing is that Palestinian lives matter less than Israeli ones," he said, adding he was outraged and grieved by acts of violence waged against innocent civilians in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Israel.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians would not be displaced or driven off their land.

"We won't leave, we won't leave," he told the summit.

France called for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza that it said could lead to a ceasefire. Britain and Germany both urged Israel's military to show restraint and Italy said it was important to avoid escalation.

The United States, Israel's closest ally and a vital player in all past peace efforts in the region, only sent its Cairo charge d'affaires who did not address the meeting in public.

European Council President Charles Michel said the main goal of the summit was "to listen to each other".

However, "we understand that we need to work more together" on issues including the humanitarian situation, avoiding a regional escalation and a Palestinian-Israeli peace process, he added.

Israel has vowed to wipe the Iranian-backed Hamas militant group "off the face of the earth" over the shock Oct. 7 assault, the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel's 75-year history.