Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said on Saturday that measures were needed to be taken to bring hope to the Palestinians, who struggle to obtain their legitimate rights.
During a meeting in Cairo with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, al-Sisi added that international guarantees were also needed to be provided to encourage Israel to go ahead on the road to peace, the presidency said.
It added in a statement that al-Sisi stressed during his meeting with Abbas that his country would continue to support the Palestinian cause.
It said al-Sisi also added that Egypt would continue to advocate the right of the Palestinians to establish their own independent state within the June 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Abbas was in Cairo to attend a meeting of Arab foreign ministers on the Palestinians' bid to resort to the United Nations Security Council to obtain a resolution, setting a timetable for ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The Arab ministers backed the Palestinian bid and also called for the establishment of a Palestinian state within the aforementioned borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The roots of the current conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-famous "Balfour Declaration," called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."
Jewish immigration rose considerably under the British administration of Palestine, which was consolidated by a League of Nations "mandate" in 1922.
In 1948, with the end of the mandate, a new state – Israel – was declared inside historical Palestine.
As a result, some 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes, or were forcibly expelled, while hundreds of Palestinian villages and cities were razed to the ground by invading Jewish forces.
The Palestinian diaspora has since become one of the largest in the world. Palestinian refugees are currently spread across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other countries, while many have settled in refugee camps in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel went on to occupy East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
Palestinians want the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
For many Palestinians, the right to return to their homes in historical Palestine – as enshrined in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 – remains a key demand.
