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World Jewish News
At Sharm summit, world leaders race to consolidate Gaza truce
18.01.2009
European and Arab leaders raced on Sunday to consolidate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas at a summit in Egypt.
The leaders pressed for an end to weapons smuggling in Gaza and for the opening of the coastal territory to desperately needed humanitarian aid.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik that the next steps would include a humanitarian summit organized by Egypt in the coming days and finding a way to open Gaza's sealed border crossings to allow in humanitarian aid.
A unilateral Israeli cease-fire fire began before dawn Sunday. Hamas also announced it would halt fighting from its side for one week while demanding that Israeli troops leave the territory.
The summit was jointly chaired by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Sarkozy will also visit Israel after the meeting for talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, France's AFP news agency said.
After the meeting, Mubarak is to travel to Kuwait on Monday for an Arab summit on the Gaza crisis that is expected to highlight divisions between participating states over how to end the conflict.
An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the summit would try to help Egypt turn Israel's unilateral ceasefire in Gaza into a mutual agreement leading to Israeli withdrawal.
"There are some violations here or there. The aim now is to consolidate that cease-fire so that a cease-fire with a longer duration can be achieved," Hossam Zaki told the Arabic satellite channel al-Arabiya.
Zaki said the leaders wanted to discuss how to help in preventing a repetition of the Gaza conflict, in which Israeli forces killed 1,200 Palestinians. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians hit by rockets were killed.
"The leaders want to discuss how to help in preventing this tragedy from being repeated, and how to all work on... rebuilding Gaza," he said.
Brown: We'll send Royal Navy to help fight smuggling
Gordon Brown said Saturday that Britain had offered naval resources that could be used to help prevent arms smuggling into Gaza as part of an arrangement to end the fighting there.
Brown told reporters that France and Germany had made similar offers in a bid to curtail the bloodshed.
In Germany, Merkel's office released a statement indicating that she, Brown and Sarkozy have sent letters to Israeli and Egyptian leaders expressing a willingness to take a series of concrete measures to combat arms smuggling.
She said they all expressed support for the efforts of the Israeli and Egyptian governments to reach a lasting cease-fire in Gaza.
European diplomats are part of a global push to calm the situation in Gaza, where more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since an Israeli offensive began in late December.
The Israelis said they were trying to prevent Hamas-led militants from firing rockets at civilian targets inside Israel.
The prime minister spoke as Israel's security cabinet met to vote on a unilateral cease-fire that came into effect at 2 A.M. Sunday morning.
Источник: HAARETZ.COM
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