Egyptian diplomacy is working against the clock to stop the Israeli aggression on the war-torn Gaza Strip, which has continued for the fourth week in a row taking the number of Palestinian victims to 1,203 with more than 5,350 injured. President Mubarak called on Israel to stop its military operations in Gaza. A cease-fire is expected to be reached through a consultative summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh today. The summit will be attended by leaders of several European countries and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have been invited to the summit, diplomatic sources said.
In a related development, the Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs (the Security Cabinet) has discussed in Israel the possibility of a unilateral ceasefire without taking into account the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). Israeli sources expected Israel to stay in Gaza for an indefinite period of time after the cease-fire agreement would be put into action.
On the field, the occupation forces have continued their intensive land, sea and air attacks on the Hamas-ruled enclave, targeting several residential buildings. The Israeli forces have launched some 1,000 tons of explosives, in addition to bombardments by tanks, the artillery and the navy.
For his part, Egypt's Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said the US-Israeli agreement on the prevention of arms smuggling into Gaza was "not binding" for Egypt.
"Israeli intransigence" is the main obstacle to the Egyptian efforts to end the war on Gaza, Aboul-Gheit said, expressing hope that there would be a cease-fire as soon as possible.
Four missiles fell in Egyptian Rafah yesterday, taking the number of missiles fired on Egypt since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza to five (none of them exploded). The Israeli air strikes and artillery and tank bombardment of the area adjacent to the borders have led to banditry, thus preventing the entry of the injured into Egypt and aid into Gaza, an official source at Rafah crossing said.
Arab and foreign volunteers and human rights activists are still arriving at Rafah crossing, the source said, adding that coordination is underway to allow them into Gaza. 230 doctors and nurses of various nationalities and 62 foreign journalists have entered Gaza till now.
