Egypt proposes initiative to stop current escalation in Palestine – sources

Sources told Al-Arabiya that Cairo had put forward an initiative to stop the current escalation in the Palestinian Territories.

According to the sources, Cairo conveyed the messages of the Palestinian Authority to the Israeli side, and Egypt called on Israel to stop the military escalation without any conditions.

The sources added that Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, gave a number of demands to the Director of Egyptian Intelligence to be given to the Israeli side, beginning with stopping the military escalation in the West Bank, stopping arbitrary arrests and stopping the demolition of homes.

The PA insists on freezing any cooperation with Israel until it commits to stopping the military escalation in the Palestinian Territories.

According to the sources, Cairo will send a security delegation to Tel Aviv to discuss stopping the escalation and convey the demands by the PA and the messages of the factions.

Cairo has directly called on Israel to stop any arbitrary measures against prisoners in Israeli prisons, and has also stressed the need to ease restrictions on them and to discuss ways to solve this file.

Egyptian officials called on Tel Aviv not to expand the military escalation to the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian cities.

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According to the sources, Tel Aviv asked for time to respond to the Egyptian demands made by Cairo regarding stopping the current military escalation, and Egypt is now waiting for a response.

The sources added that Tel Aviv links the cessation of escalation to the cessation of the individual operations taking place in various areas.

Egypt called on the Palestinian factions not to launch rockets from the Gaza Strip and to abide by the truce and gave them a promise that Cairo would work to stop the escalation in the Palestinian Territories.

The sources also said that Egypt is seeking to reach an agreement within the next week to stop the escalation and return to discussions under Egyptian auspices, with each party presenting its demands.

Egypt has directly asked the US to put pressure on Israel to stop the military response and to pressure it to agree to immediately stopping the military operations.