The Red Sea breeze carried more than salt this morning it carried the fragile weight of hope. In Sharm El Sheikh, world leaders convened for what Egyptian officials called “The Summit For Peace,” a high-stakes gathering aimed at locking in a ceasefire that, just days ago, seemed improbable. On Friday, Israeli forces began pulling back from parts of Gaza, and today, Hamas is scheduled to release its last 20 living Israeli hostages while Israel frees hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Yet beneath the diplomatic handshakes and photo ops, the Gaza War remains unresolved. No one here pretends the hard part is over only that it might finally be possible to begin.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi co-chaired the summit, signaling a rare alignment between Washington and Cairo on a postwar vision for Gaza. Leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Jordan, the United Nations, and the European Union all attended but notably absent were the two parties whose war brought them here: Israel and Hamas. The irony wasn’t lost on anyone. “They’re the ones who must live with the consequences,” said one European diplomat, speaking off-record, “yet they’re not in the room where it’s decided.” Still, the turnout underscored the international community’s urgency. Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged $27 million for water and sanitation, while Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz committed to co-hosting a reconstruction conference with Egypt.
The absence of Israeli and Hamas representatives wasn’t merely logistical it was symbolic. These are enemies who’ve traded bullets, not briefings, for two brutal years. Their indirect talks, mediated by Egypt and Qatar in Doha, remain the only channel that’s worked. Iran, a key backer of Hamas, also stayed away, its regional influence visibly waning after a punishing 12-day war with Israel in June. Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas attended, though Israel has flatly rejected any role for his administration in postwar Gaza. That tension between who holds power on the ground and who gets a seat at the table hangs over every promise made here. El-Sissi’s office framed the summit as ushering in “a new page of peace,” but pages can be torn out. Everyone knows that.
Even if the ceasefire holds, the scale of devastation demands more than goodwill. The World Bank estimates Gaza’s reconstruction will cost $53 billion a sum that dwarfs today’s pledges. Aid groups, long blocked from delivering supplies, are now racing to move food, medicine, and shelter into areas abandoned during Israel’s offensive. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are tentatively returning home, many to rubble. Turkey, which sheltered Hamas political leaders for years, played a quiet but critical role in brokering the truce, while Jordan and Egypt are set to train a new Palestinian security force a key pillar of Trump’s postwar plan. But disarming Hamas, defining Gaza’s governance, and ensuring Israel’s full withdrawal remain unresolved. As one UN official put it: “We’re building the plane while flying it.”
Sharm El Sheikh isn’t just a resort it’s a place layered with history. Briefly occupied by Israel in 1956, it later hosted UN peacekeepers until Nasser expelled them in 1967, triggering the Six-Day War. Returned to Egypt in 1982 after the Camp David Accords, it became a frequent venue for Israeli-Palestinian talks under Hosni Mubarak. Now, under El-Sissi, it hosts its first peace summit a full-circle moment that feels both hopeful and haunted. The luxury hotels and dive sites stand in stark contrast to Gaza’s ruins just hours away. Yet here, in this sun-drenched conference room, leaders are trying to stitch together a future that, for 2.3 million Gazans, cannot wait.
The summit will last just two hours. Trump and El-Sissi are expected to issue a joint statement, but no breakthroughs on the thorniest issues disarmament, sovereignty, reconstruction funding are anticipated today. What matters more is the signal: the world is watching, and it’s invested. Egypt has already warded off Trump’s earlier proposal to depopulate Gaza, replacing it with a plan that keeps its people in place. That alone is a victory for dignity. But signals fade. Promises evaporate. The true measure of this moment won’t be in declarations or donor conferences it will be in whether a child in Khan Younis can sleep without fear tonight. Peace Isn’t Signed In Summits It’s Built In Streets.
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