Guterres urges world to support Egypt's efforts in Gaza

CAIRO – 16 August 2018: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed on Wednesday the Israeli decision to reopen Kerem Shalom commercial crossing and the fishing zone off the coast of Gaza, in the light of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Guterrs said that the Israeli authorities agreed to the calls of the International arena to avoid the harms of closing a civil crossing, adding that citizens in Gaza are set to face huge living difficulties in case of the crossing closure.


The UN secretary urged all the regional powers to support the Egyptian efforts in coordination with the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, to curb any military escalation between the Israeli army and the Palestinian factions in Gaza.

Egyptian diplomacy along with the UN managed to realize a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza, following an Israeli military aggression against Gaza last week.

Since Wednesday evening, the Gaza Strip was shelled by Israeli rockets, killing three Palestinians, including a pregnant women and her 18-year-old infant. Twelve others were injured in Israeli raids.

Israeli rockets resumed on Wednesday although the military wing of the Palestinian movement Hamas announced its acceptance of mutual ceasefire. Since then, the Egyptian authorities made a series of communications with several organizations and bodies to cease fire in Gaza and stop the escalation.

As for the inter-Palestine reconciliation, a source told Egypt Today on the condition of anonymity, that Fatah's Executive Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad has been in Cairo since Wednesday in order to conduct a number of positive talks with Egyptian officials regarding the mechanisms of the reconciliation process.

In October 2017, the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a preliminary reconciliation deal in Cairo in the presence of Egyptian intelligence officials, in the latest in a series of attempts to end a decade-long Palestinian territorial