(MENAFN- Live Mint) An international peace summit is being held in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt today to finalise an agreement aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will chair the meeting titled "Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit," according to a statement from the Egyptian presidenc . The summit will take place after Trump visits Israel and Hamas's release of the hostages.

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Leaders and officials from 27 countries will take part in the summit, according to the official Egyptian News Agency. Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh will represent India at the crucial meeting, where leaders are expected to discuss ways to achieve lasting peace in war-torn Gaza, as well as in the wider Middle East.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited for the summit, as per some media reports; however, New Delhi deputed MoS Singh to attend the summit.

Why is the Sharm El-Sheikh summit being held?

Egypt said the summit in Sharm El-Sheikh aims“to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East, and usher in a new phase of regional security and stability.”

Trump announced last Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to phase one of his 20-point plan to secure a Gaza ceasefire and release all Israeli captives in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The plan's second phase aims at establishing a new governing body in Gaza without Hamas, the formation of a multinational force , and Hamas' disarmament.

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Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed over 67,600 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.

Who all are attending the summit?

Apart from President Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni French President Emmanuel Macron and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are among the leaders attending the summit.

"The summit will be co-chaired by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and US President Donald Trump , with the participation of leaders from more than 20 countries," an Egyptian readout said.

Full list of leaders attending the summit:

1-Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi – Host

2-US President Donald Trump

3-Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

4-Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

5-Jordan's King Abdullah II

6-Kuwait's Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Al Sabah

7-Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa

8-Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

9-Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto

10-Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev

11-French President Emmanuel Macron

12-German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

13-British Prime Minister Keir Starmer

14-Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

15-Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez

16-Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis

17-Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan

18-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban

19-Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif

20-Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

21-Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store

22-Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani

23-United Arab Emirates Vice President Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan

24-Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi

25-Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishanka

26-Japan's Ambassador to Egypt Masaki Noke

27-Greek Cypriot Administration leader Nikos Christodoulides

The summit will also be attended by heads of various international and regional organisations, including:

1-UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

2-European Council President Antonio Costa

3-Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit

Who is not attending the summit?

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that no Israeli officials will participate in the summit.

Hamas also will not attend, according to officials in the terror group. Hossam Badran, a Hamas political bureau member, told AFP in an interview that the group“will not be involved.” Hamas“acted principally through... Qatari and Egyptian mediators” during previous talks on Gaza, he said.

Iran has also declined an invitation to attend the Gaza Peace Summit, also known as the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit.

Israel-Hamas Ceasefire

The summit comes days after President Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to phase one of his 20-point plan to secure a Gaza ceasefire and release all Israeli captives in exchange for about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

With the start of the ceasefire on Friday, the remaining 48 hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive, were expected to be released within 72 hours - by today, 13 October. Israel is set to release around 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange, including 250 terror convicts serving life sentences, reports suggested.

The plan's second phase aims at establishing a new governing body in Gaza without Hamas, the formation of a multinational force, and Hamas' disarmament. Since October 2023, about 67,600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israeli attacks , according to Hamas' health ministry

Israel launched fresh attacks on Gaza two years ago after Hamas attacked Israeli cities on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people. Hamas also took 251 people as hostages, and over 50 of them are still in its captivity.

What to expect from the Summit?

As reported by international media quoting officials, the summit in Sharm El-Sheikh aims to solidify the backing of the deal's guarantors -“not the parties,” even as no one from Israel or Hamas is attending it.

It, however, remains unclear how this summit can formally bring the war to a close. Israel has reiterated that it won't agree to end the war until it is satisfied that Hamas no longer poses a threat and has no part in the rule of Gaza.

Experts on the Middle East said mediators still have the tricky task of securing a longer-term political solution that will see Hamas hand in weapons and step aside from governing Gaza, something the next phases of Trump's 20-point Gaza plan aim to achieve.

The summit aims to end the war in the Gaza Strip and enhance efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East.

The Sharm El-Sheikh summit is widely viewed as the first major test of the after ceasefire just brokered by Cairo, Washington, Doha, and other countries

Whether this summit will yield a breakthrough remains to be seen, as the world's eyes turn to Sharm El-Sheikh, where top leaders have convened.

(With agency inputs)

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