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Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and US President Donald Trump agreed on the need to consolidate the Gaza ceasefire deal in a phone call on Saturday, according to an Egyptian presidency statement.
The statement made no mention of Mr Trump's call for the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, which has been publicly rejected by both Cairo and Amman.
The White House said the two leaders spoke about “Egypt’s important role in the release of hostages from Gaza” and that Mr El Sisi expressed confidence that Mr Trump could bring peace to the region.
The Egyptian statement said the leaders had a positive dialogue that stressed the importance of fully implementing the first and second phases of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which was brokered by Egypt, the US and Qatar. The White House statement on the call did not refer to the ceasefire.
Neither statement mentioned whether they discussed Mr Trump's assertion last week that Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza following 15 months of Israeli bombardment that have left most of the enclave's 2.3 million people homeless and destroyed or damaged 80 per cent of its homes.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have also been killed in Gaza since October 2020, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Mr El Sisi on Wednesday rejected the idea of moving Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, describing it as an “act of injustice” that Cairo will never be part of.
However, Mr Trump repeated his call on the two Arab allies on Thursday. “They will do it. They are going to do it, OK? We do a lot for them, and they are going to do it,” he said in an apparent reference to US aid to both Egypt and Jordan.
A meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Saturday also rejected the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza, saying such a move would threaten regional stability, spread conflict and undermine peace prospects.
