Arab leaders at a Cairo summit on Saturday condemned Israeli bombardment of Gaza while the Europeans said civilians should be shielded. As Israel and senior U.S. officials were absent, no agreement was reached.
Reuters reports that Egypt, which called for and hosted the meeting, said it had hoped participants would call for peace and resume efforts to resolve the decades-long Palestinian quest for statehood.
Diplomats had not been optimistic of a breakthrough, with Israel preparing a ground invasion of Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas.
Arab and Muslim states called for an immediate end to Israel’s offensive; Western countries mostly voiced more modest goals such as humanitarian relief.
Jordan’s King Abdullah denounced what he termed ‘global silence about Israel’s attacks’.
‘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.
France called for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza that could lead to a ceasefire. Britain and Germany urged Israel’s military to show restraint; Italy said it was important to avoid escalation.
The U.S. only sent its Cairo charge d’affaires to observe the meeting.
European Council President Charles Michel said the main goal of the summit was ‘to listen to each other’.
Reuters reports that Israel told Palestinians to move south within Gaza for their own safety, although the coastal strip is only 45 km (28 miles) long and Israeli air strikes have also hit the south.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said his country opposed ‘the displacement of Palestinians’ into Egypt’s largely desert Sinai region, adding the only solution was an independent Palestinian state.
Egypt fears insecurity near the Gaza border where it faced an Islamist insurgency, which has now largely been suppressed.
King Abdullah said forced displacement ‘is a war crime according to international law, and a red line for all of us’.