David Cameron urges Hamas to agree to 40-day Gaza ceasefire deal

David Cameron has urged Hamas to agree to a deal for a sustained 40-day ceasefire in Gaza and the release of potentially thousands of hostages and prisoners.

The foreign secretary also challenged Arab states to accept that the Hamas military leadership responsible for the attack on 7 October must leave Gaza.

“I don’t believe, even if there was a Palestinian state created tomorrow, that Iran and its leaders would say, ‘Well, that’s all fine, now it’s all sorted.’”

Saudi Arabia is seeking more bankable assurances about Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution before it will normalise relations.

The Saudi foreign minister said the bilateral work on a deal with the US was “very very close; we have the broad outlines of what we need to happen”.

The Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said: “Israel is run by a prime minister that is driven by an ideology that does not believe in a two-state solution,” adding that this represented a challenge for the international community, which had so far paid lip service to a Palestinian state, but taken no real action to stop Israeli settlements and land grabs.