Xinhua Agency, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 14. Leaders of multiple countries and international organizations held a summit in the Red Sea coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on the evening of the 13th, focusing on the first phase of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The heads of state of Egypt, the United States, Qatar and Turkey signed a document promising to support the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement as guarantors.

Experts pointed out that the summit and the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip signed before the meeting left many questions for Palestine, Israel and the Middle East. The "light at the end of the tunnel" has not yet appeared, the "black hand of conflict" has not disappeared, and the road to lasting peace is still full of twists and turns.

On October 13, in Sham Sheikh, Egypt, Egyptian President Sisi delivered a speech at the summit.

Three details attracted attention

Several details of the summit have attracted the attention of international observers and national media.

The summit will be attended by leaders of more than 20 countries, including Palestinian President Abbas and several European leaders, but the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the leaders of Israel, the parties to the Gaza conflict, did not attend. Important countries in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and the UAE just sent delegates to attend the meeting.

Details 2. British media disclosed that before the summit began, leaders waited for several hours in the reception room before waiting for US President Trump. Trump did not provide any specific answers during the summit on how to achieve the next stage of the 20-point plan previously proposed by the United States, except to say that some leaders attending the summit intended to join the so-called "peace committee" set up to supervise Gaza's governance after the war.

Third, the White House-published summit signing documents show that the document emphasizes "commitment to" ending the conflict in Gaza and defines the vision of the region with "hope", "security", "peace", "blossom".

Egyptian President Sisi said the ¡°two-state plan¡± is the only way to peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis.

Four Questions for the Middle East

Many experts on Middle East issues believe that many details of this summit show that the thorny issues between Palestine and Israel have once again been shelved to the next stage, leaving four huge question marks between Palestine and Israel and the entire Middle East region.

The current ceasefire agreement does not set a timetable for Israel¡¯s full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israeli Regional Foreign Policy Institute expert Roy Kibrik says that Israeli followers can easily find an excuse to resume military operations, not to rule out that the Netanyahu government is ¡°interested¡± in resuming arms after receiving detainees.

Palestinian analyst Hussam Dajani said that the parties have not currently made any arrangements on how to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of two million people who have lost their homes and livelihoods, such as the sources of funding for rebuilding Gaza, which is the biggest challenge to post-fire governance.

On October 12, in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinians returning home walked through severely damaged buildings.

Palestinian expert Hani Masri said that the current exclusion of Pakistani delegates from post-conflict Gaza governance would exacerbate the division of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, equal to depriving Palestinians of their right to self-determination and eroding the basis of the "two-state plan".

Question 4: How does the ceasefire in Gaza affect the regional situation? Experts in the Middle East interpret that if the international community can establish credible security guarantees, this ceasefire is expected to ease regional tensions. But once the ceasefire breaks down, Syria analyst Mohammed Nadir Omari fears that the fighting may quickly expand to Lebanon, Syria and the Red Sea region.

A number of Middle East experts said that the fundamental reason why the summit and ceasefire agreement left so many questions was that the ceasefire was largely due to the exhaustion of the parties to the conflict and the pressure of countries outside the region, and did not fairly take into account the interests of all parties. Egyptian expert Mustafa Amin said that during the escalation and ceasefire of the Gaza conflict, the United States played the role of "executioner, jury and judge" and was essentially "the ultimate embodiment of power politics."

Considerations of the US government

Experts believe that the U.S. government has multiple considerations from proposing the "20-point plan" to pressure a ceasefire in Gaza to using the Sharm el-Sheikh summit to build momentum.

Liu Chen, associate professor at the Arabic School of Beijing Foreign Studies University, believes that the United States is not a "peacemaker" and its core demands on Palestinian-Israeli and regional issues include the following three points: first, to safeguard the United States 'dominance in the Middle East, and second, to ensure its ally Israel's interests and dominant position in the Middle East. The third is to promote the normalization of relations between Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and Israel.

On October 13th, at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (front) shared a car with visiting US President Trump. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Junqing

Mutaz Khalil, Egypt's former permanent representative to the United Nations, said the United States hopes to achieve its political and economic interests by maintaining Israel's regional dominance and advancing the so-called "Abraham Agreement" on normalizing relations between Arab countries and Israel.

In terms of normalization of relations between Arab countries and Israel, Syed Okasha, an expert at the Egyptian Center for Political and Strategic Studies at the Pyramid, believes that the conflict in Gaza has further strengthened the Arab world¡¯s distrust of the United States, that relations between Arab countries such as Israel and Egypt that have signed peace treaties have been quite tense, and that Saudi Arabia, a key country in the Arab world, has taken the process of establishing a Palestinian state as an important prerequisite for normalizing relations with Israel.

The Israeli issue is at the heart of the Middle East issue. Liu Jin believes that the Sham Sheikh summit and the Gaza ceasefire agreement are not the ¡°light at the end of the tunnel¡±. A lasting peace in the Middle East requires a solution to the root of the issue.