Interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid ended the first day of a cease-fire with Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists in the Gaza Strip by talking to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
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Egypt played a key part in brokering the talks for a cease-fire in the latest operation, which Israel launched last week after obtaining concrete intelligence that PIJ terrorists were planning to launch a major terrorist attack in response to Israel arresting one of its top commanders.
The Prime Minister's Office reported that Lapid and el-Sissi "talked at length."
"The prime minister thanked the Egyptian president for his hard work security the cease-fire in Gaza. Lapid said that Egypt had a very important role to play in maintaining regional stability and security," the PMO statement continued.
According to the PMO, Lapid and el-Sissi discussed the importance of strengthening and developing normalization between Israel and other countries in the region, and the role of dialogue in securing regional stability.
"The president, for his part, brought up the Palestinian issue. Lapid stressed that in his view, the Palestinians' economic situation had to be strengthened. The two also discussed humanitarian matters important to both countries, and continued economic cooperation," the statement added.
The phrase "humanitarian matters" appears to be a reference to Israel's missing fallen soldiers and captive civilians being held by Hamas in Gaza, and possibly the PIJ operations currently in prison in Israel. Egypt has promised to make efforts to secure the PIJ prisoners' release as part of the latest cease-fire.
Israel Hayom has learned that during the conversation, el-Sissi said that Egypt was make efforts to contain the situation and prevent increased military escalation. The Egyptian leader underscored that it was important to build up the current calm and cut off any attempts to stir up tensions, both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria, as well as take immediate steps to ease conditions in Gaza. El-Sissi also said it was important to improve economic ties between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and support PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
In a statement Monday evening, Lapid thanked el-Sissi and head of Egypt's security services, Maj. Gen. Abbas Kamel, for their latest efforts.
"We are still working with them to bring our boys [the late Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul]. Until Hadar and Oron of blessed memory, and Avera [Mengistu] and Hisham [Al Sayeed] are back, our work will not be complete," the prime minister said.
A statement from el-Sissi's office said that his conversation with Lapid sought to "renew the Palestinian people's hope of reaching peace and securing their legitimate rights."
The Egyptian statement made no reference to PIJ prisoners in Israeli custody.
Hours later, Egypt's ambassador to the United Nations Osama Abdel Khalek spoke before an emergency UN Security Council session devoted to Operation Breaking Dawn, slamming Israel and employing inaccurate figures, the Times of Israel reported.
According to the report, Abdel Khalek said that 43 Gazans had been killed in the operations, without mentioning how many of them had been PIJ terrorists. IDF figures put the number of Gazan civilian casualties during the operation at 11, whereas 16 Palestinians in Gaza were killed by PIJ rocket misfires.
Apart from not mentioning the PIJ or the hundreds of rockets it fired at Israeli civilian targets, or its plans to execute a mass-casualty terrorist attacks, the Egyptian envoy took the opportunity to berate Israel for allowing "settlers" into Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount,) a reference to the Jews who visited the holy site on Tisha B'Av, which fell on Sunday.
Abdel Khalel also decried Israeli arrests of Palestinian terror suspects, settlement construction, and demolitions of indicted terrorists' homes, and vowed that Egypt would "never abandon" its "responsibilities" to its Palestinian brothers, the TOI report said.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told the UNSC that Israel took action "to protect our civilians and defend our country" and conducted the operation "with astounding accuracy and extreme precision," doing everything possible to minimize civilian casualties.
"Due to these extensive and documented precautions, there is no other military, I reiterate no other military, that has such a low collateral damage rate," Erdan told the council.
He stressed that the only reason Gaza is in the situation it is now is that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad chose "terror and violence over coexistence and peace."
"There is no other explanation," Erdan said. "The only remedy for the Gazans is that their leaders stop trying to annihilate Israel and stop investing the resources in terror infrastructure."
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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