The UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, will be in Egypt today, where he’s expected to push for more aid delivery into Gaza and urge all sides to reach what he calls “a sustainable ceasefire”.
Cameron was in Jordan yesterday, whose leaders are demanding an immediate halt to the fighting in Gaza.
This is his second trip to the Middle East as foreign secretary and one in which he is trying a diplomatic balancing act.
Pulled one way by Israel, determined to fight Hamas to the death, and the other by the Arab world and many other countries demanding an end to the Israeli offensive, Britain is calling for a ceasefire that is “sustainable” – in other words, a long-term solution rather than a truce that leaves Hamas in place as a threat to Israel.
Having discussed the conflict with leaders in Jordan, Cameron will today meet Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and the Egyptian foreign minister in Cairo before heading close to the border with Gaza to see aid operations there, as he urges more humanitarian assistance and fuel to be allowed in.