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Biden tells Netanyahu he supports a ceasefire in Israeli-Palestinian conflict
"The President expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed US engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end," the White House said in a statement, quoted by Reuters.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with US Vice President Joe Biden during a state memorial service for former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon outside the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in Jerusalem, on January 13, 2014. (Agence France Presse/Gali Tibbon)
U
S President Joe Biden, in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, expressed his support for a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants, the White House said.
"The President expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed US engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end," the White House said in a statement, quoted by Reuters.
Egypt meanwhile is seeking to restore its regional clout by mediating between Israel and Hamas to douse the week-long conflict in Gaza that has cost more than 200 lives.
In 2014, Egypt brokered a fragile ceasefire after a devastating weeks-long war between arch-foes Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the densely populated Palestinian enclave.
In the latest conflict, which entered its second week Monday, Israeli airstrikes and rocket fire from Gaza have killed over 200 Palestinians and 10 people in Israel, officials on the two sides say. Hundreds more have been wounded.
The escalation has embarrassed Gulf states UAE and Bahrain which normalised diplomatic ties with Israel last year, putting Cairo in the diplomatic driving seat.
"In a region where normalising states are expanding their own relations with Israel, Egypt... has a vested interest utilising its geographic proximity to Gaza to leverage its diplomatic power," said Tareq Baconi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
An Egyptian intelligence delegation reportedly on the ground in Israel and the Palestinian territories has boosted Cairo's hand as a peace-broker.
"The delegation is comprised of intelligence officials and has been there for several days to negotiate a ceasefire," Khaled Okasha, a member of Egypt's Supreme Council for Counter-Terrorism, told AFP.
Okasha, director of the state-affiliated Egyptian Centre for Strategic Studies, said he was optimistic about a breakthrough.
"Egypt has to be involved. There's no way around it -- literally and physically," said Michael Hanna, a senior fellow at the New York-based Century Foundation.
Israel has enforced a land and sea blockade on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas seized control of the impoverished territory, home to about two million Palestinians.
Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the enclave's only passage to the outside world not controlled by Israel.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi instructed authorities last week to open the crossing to allow wounded Gazans to be treated in Egyptian hospitals and to deliver aid.
"This is an opportunity to say not just to the US but to other regional parties that Egypt remains important, it's a necessary diplomatic player and that a ceasefire is going to go through Cairo," said Hanna.
He said popular support for the Palestinians on the streets of Cairo has emboldened Egypt's leadership to adopt a "harsher, more outspoken" line against Israel, despite their 1979 peace treaty.
Egyptian media had previously regularly branded Gaza a "terrorist hotbed".
