By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Saturday attend the Cairo Summit for Peace to discuss the ongoing escalation of the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Ramaphosa will attend the summit at the invitation of His Excellency Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt.
According to the Presidency, the summit will discuss the ongoing escalation of the conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip, the urgent need for humanitarian support and make a call for the resumption of the peace process.
“President Ramaphosa has been deeply concerned by attacks on civilians, the resulting enormous loss of life, displacement of people and the humanitarian crisis that has engulfed the Gaza Strip.
“South Africa has repeatedly called for the immediate cessation of hostilities, return of hostages and the urgent opening of humanitarian corridors,” the Presidency said.
The Presidency emphasised that South Africa stands ready to join the global effort that will bring about lasting peace to the Middle East.
Egyptian media reported that 12 leaders had confirmed they would attend the summit on the Israeli-Hamas war.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas following the attack that claimed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Israeli warplanes have leveled entire city blocks in Gaza in retaliation, killing more than 3,785 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in the bombing – according to the latest toll from the Hamas-run health ministry.
Last week, the Israeli government issued a warning to over 1.1 million Gazans– nearly half of Gaza’s 2.4 million citizens – to evacuate their homes in the northern parts of the territory for the south, ahead of an expected ground offensive.
The United Nations said it was “impossible” for them to leave the territory, which has been under an air, land and sea blockade by Israel since 2006.
Egypt prides itself on the fact that it has never set up tented refugee camps, saying the nine million Syrians, Iraqis and Sudanese it hosts can work and study like Egyptian citizens.
But most of all, Cairo calling on Palestinians to leave their land would break a taboo even bigger than its recognition of Israel in 1979, when it became the first Arab country to do so.
If 1.1 million people from northern Gaza poured across the southern crossing, it would eclipse the numbers from 1948, when more than 750,000 people crossed the borders.
Meanwhile the African National Congress (ANC) and its alliance partners have called for the Israeli embassy in Pretoria to be closed amid the country’s ongoing war with Hamas.
The ANC, SACP, Cosatu, joined various civil society and faith-based organisations in a march to the embassy on Friday.
The governing party has over the years held pickets outside the Israeli embassy in support of Palestine.
In May 2021, the then deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte who was leading the picket called on the Israeli government to “take their knees off the Palestinians” or close their embassy in the country.
The governing party wants Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to appear before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.
ANC deputy secretary-general Nomvula Mokonyane slammed the Israeli embassy for “displaying arrogance and lack of willingness to negotiate”.
“The last time we insisted on closing, and then we downgraded the embassy – even now , we have written to them and they have not acknowledged us.”
Mokonyane said the Israeli Ambassador flew to Cape Town on Thursday evening, knowing very well that there will be a march in their door step.
There was no one to receive the memorandum as the embassy was closed with a heavy police presence.