Egypt’s foreign ministry said their officials “are making intensive contacts at all levels to contain the current crisis,” in order to “spare the region from further tension and instability and prevent the situation from spiralling out of control.”
Foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Egypt’s top diplomat, foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, began consulting with Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Al-Safadi, “to consult…regarding efforts to stop the escalation between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.”
“The two ministers agreed to continue consultation and close coordination during the coming hours,” he added.
Shoukry also spoke with the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, which signed an agreement to recognise and establish formal relations with Israel in 2020.
According to a statement from the Egyptian side, Shoukry “was keen to inform his Emirati counterpart of the communications that Egypt is conducting to stop the escalation and try to contain the crisis. The two sides agreed on the seriousness of the current situation and the necessity of making every effort to prevent the security situation from getting out of control and exposing the lives of civilians to further risks and threats.”
The Egyptian foreign ministry also hinted at possible further contact between Egyptian officials and other actors involved, a nod towards the frequent contact between Egyptian intelligence officials and Hamas as well as the Islamic Jihad, a line of negotiations that has often proved more effective in scaling back action from Gazan militants than talks between diplomats.
Egypt brokered a ceasefire that ended three days of fighting between Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant faction in Gaza last August, including Israeli airstrikes on Gaza which killed at least 49 people.
Top Egyptian intelligence official Abbas Kamel has long remained the face of Egyptian consultations with militant factions in Gaza, despite rarely if ever discussing these negotiations publicly. Kamel, currently the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, visited the besieged coastal enclave of Gaza two years ago to bolster the terms of a ceasefire to a previous round of fighting between Gazan militants and Israeli forces.
Delegations from both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad also held talks in Egypt last June chaired by Hamas’s senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Ziad al-Nakhala, leader of the Islamic Jihad, where they discussed Israeli control of Jerusalem including the incursions by settlers into the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, one of Islam’s holiest sites.
The talks followed a visit by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh to Egypt to discuss the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
