Israel and Hamas have no direct contacts and were not expected to attend Monday's summit. The Israeli prime minister's office said Benjamin Netanyahu will not travel to the venue because of a Jewish holiday.
Israel has rejected any role in Gaza for the internationally backed Palestinian Authority, whose leader, Mahmoud Abbas, arrived in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh early on Monday afternoon, ahead of the gathering.
The summit comes as Hamas released 20 remaining living Israeli hostages and Israel started to free hundreds of Palestinians from its prisons, crucial steps after a ceasefire began on Friday.
But major questions remain unanswered over what happens next, raising the risk of slide back into war — even as the world pushes for peace.
A new page
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s office said the summit aims to “end the war” in Gaza and “usher in a new page of peace and regional stability” in line with U.S. President Donald Trump's vision.
The two sides came under pressure from the United States, Arab countries and Turkey to agree on the ceasefire's first phase negotiated in Qatar.
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 to a Trump plan to depopulate the territory.
The two leaders co-chairing the international summit signals that they are working together on a path forward.
Ahead of the gathering, Egypt’s foreign minister said it was also crucial that Israel and Hamas fully implement the first phase of the deal so that the parties, with international backing, can begin negotiations on the second phase.
The success of Trump’s vision for Mideast peace is his continued commitment to the process, including applying pressure on the parties, engagement and “even deployment on the ground” with international forces expected to carry out peacekeeping duties in the next phase, said Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
“We need American engagement, even deployment on the ground, to identify the mission, task and mandate of this force,” Abdelatty told The Associated Press.
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.
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.
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’s plan also stipulates that regional and international partners will work to develop the core of a new Palestinian security force.
