SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) \u2014 The U.S. and Egyptian presidents are chairing a gathering of world leaders dubbed \u201cthe Summit for Peace\u201d to support ending the two-year war in Gaza after a breakthrough ceasefire deal. <\/p>\n
Israel and Hamas have no direct contacts and are not expected to attend Monday’s summit. Israel has rejected any role in Gaza for the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, whose leader is coming. <\/p>\n
Leaders from Turkey, Jordan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, the United Nations and European Union also have all said they will attend.<\/p>\n
The summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh comes on the same day that Hamas is to release its 20 remaining living Israeli hostages<\/a> and Israel is to free hundreds of Palestinians from its prisons<\/a>, crucial steps after a ceasefire began on Friday. <\/p>\n But major questions remain unanswered over what happens next, raising the risk of slide back into war.<\/p>\n So why are the world leaders meeting? <\/p>\n The two sides came under pressure from the United States, Arab countries and Turkey to agree on the ceasefire’s first phase. <\/p>\n Israel and Hamas need international and regional technical and financial support to get through many complex issues. <\/p>\n Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s office said the summit aims to \u201cend the war” in Gaza and \u201cusher in a new page of peace and regional stability” in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision<\/a>.<\/p>\n In March, Egypt proposed a postwar plan for Gaza that would allow its 2.3 million people to remain. At the time, that was a counterproposal<\/a> to a Trump plan to depopulate the territory. <\/p>\n The two leaders co-chairing the international summit signals that they are working together on a path forward. <\/p>\n Directly tackling the remaining issues in depth is unlikely at the gathering, expected to last about two hours. El-Sissi and Trump are expected to issue a joint statement after it ends. <\/p>\n Under the first phase, Israeli troops pulled back from some parts of Gaza, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza to return home from areas they were forced to evacuate. Aid groups are preparing to bring in large quantities of aid kept out of the territory for months.<\/p>\n The negotiations will have to tackle the issues of disarming Hamas, creating a post-war government for Gaza and the extent of Israel’s withdrawal from the territory. Trump\u2019s plan also stipulates that regional and international partners will work to develop the core of a new Palestinian security force. <\/p>\n Another major issue is raising funds for rebuilding Gaza. The World Bank, and Egypt’s postwar plan, estimate reconstruction and recovery needs in Gaza at $53 billion. Egypt plans to host a future reconstruction conference. <\/p>\n Israel and Hamas. <\/p>\n The two primary parties to the conflict \u2014 staunch enemies who have little trust in each other and a number of failed negotiations behind them \u2014 are not attending. <\/p>\n Negotiations in Doha and in previous rounds were indirect, with Egypt and Qatar as meditators. <\/p>\n Iran, a main backer of Hamas, is not attending either. <\/p>\n