Arab leaders push for Gaza ceasefire, pledge reconstruction support

At their annual summit in Baghdad on Saturday, Arab leaders announced efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, while pledging support for rebuilding the war-torn territory once hostilities cease.

Back in March, during an emergency Arab League meeting in Cairo, leaders endorsed a plan for Gaza’s post-war reconstruction that emphasized keeping the enclave’s population of around 2 million residents in place.

Among the prominent attendees of the current summit were Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. El-Sissi reaffirmed that a sustainable and equitable peace in the Middle East is unattainable without the creation of a Palestinian state, despite any potential normalization of ties between Israel and Arab nations. Egypt, notably, was the first Arab state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.