World leaders begin arriving in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh for Gaza peace summit

By Hussien Elkabany and Betul Yilmaz

CAIRO / ISTANBUL (AA) - Heads of state and senior officials from several countries began arriving in Egypt’s Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday to participate in an international peace summit on Gaza.

According to Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News Channel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Pakistani Prime Minister Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and the Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit arrived at the summit venue.

More than 20 world leaders are expected to attend the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, which will be co-chaired by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his American counterpart, Donald Trump.

Egypt said 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.”

The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Friday under Trump’s plan to end a two-year Israeli war on the enclave.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,800 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.