Mohammad Sıo
22 July 2025•Update: 22 July 2025
- Hamas urges signatory states to translate declaration into 'practical steps to end the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip'
ISTANBUL
Egypt welcomed a joint statement issued Monday by 28 countries calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid and an end to Israel’s genocide in the enclave.
In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said it “fully supports” the international call, which also condemned Israeli practices in Gaza and the obstruction of humanitarian assistance to civilians.
Egypt echoed the statement’s rejection of proposals to relocate Palestinians to a so-called “humanitarian city,” reiterating its opposition to any attempt to forcibly displace Gaza residents. It described such efforts as a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in early July that he instructed the army to prepare a plan to relocate all Palestinians to what he called a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza.
The ministry also welcomed the condemnation of Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and the violence committed by illegal Israeli settlers.
Egypt also reaffirmed its commitment to ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, working alongside Qatar and the US.
The Foreign Ministry urged the international community to take further practical steps toward implementing a two-state solution, including the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state based on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Palestinian group Hamas also hailed the statement and urged signatory states to translate the declaration into “practical steps to end the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas praised the statement’s clear demand to stop the war and facilitate the entry of aid via the UN and humanitarian agencies and its acknowledgment that Israel’s starvation policy is a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
More than two dozen countries including the UK, Australia and Japan along with the European Union condemned Israel's “inhumane killing” of civilians in the Gaza Strip, calling for an immediate end to the war in the besieged enclave.
In the joint statement, the foreign ministers of 28 countries and European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached “new depths.”
“The Israeli government’s aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity,” it said.
“We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.”
Gaza’s Government Media Office said Sunday that 995 Palestinians have been killed and 6,011 injured and 45 remain missing while attempting to access food at aid distribution points controlled by Israeli and US forces since May 27.
Israel has sealed all crossings with Gaza since March 2, effectively cutting off access to humanitarian aid and accelerating the spread of famine.
Israel has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system and led to severe food shortages.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
