This will also be discussed with international partners at a conference in Paris on Thursday. Humanitarian and medical aid must also reach the Gaza Strip quickly. People need a perspective on reconstruction: “So that the terrible suffering can come to an end.”
After the breakthrough in negotiations to end the Gaza war, Germany wants to invite people to a reconstruction conference together with Egypt. “But this will have to be a politically broader conference that also sets out the political framework for the Gaza Strip and of course always keeps in mind that the end result will have to be a two-state solution,” said Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) on the sidelines of a Western Balkans conference in the Northern Irish capital Belfast.
A reconstruction conference is “the next necessary step,” said Wadephul, who called the breakthrough in the negotiations historic. In the evening, European and Arab foreign ministers will speak on the subject at a conference in Paris. This meeting is part of what is needed now. “But Israel is missing from the table and Israel belongs at the table,” he demanded. The reconstruction conference, to which Germany and Egypt want to invite, “must be one in which Israel and the United States are present.” Germany will also provide humanitarian aid and support the establishment of an administration in the Gaza Strip.
According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, the ceasefire will only come into force the evening after ratification by the cabinet. The state-affiliated Egyptian television station Qahera TV had previously reported that the ceasefire came into force at 11 a.m. German time. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said there was an agreement for a ceasefire and an end to the war in the Gaza Strip: “The world is witnessing a historic moment.”
