Arab leaders promise to work on reconstruction of Gaza and press for a ceasefire

BAGHDAD (AP) — Arab leaders at an annual summit in Baghdad called Saturday for an immediate end to Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip and to allow aid into the Palestinian territories without conditions. They promised to contribute to the reconstruction of the territory once the war stops.

In March, an emergency Arab League summit in Cairo endorsed a plan for Gaza's reconstruction without displacing its roughly 2 million residents.

Saturday’s summit was attended by Arab leaders including Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Siss i. The Egyptian leader said that even if Israel succeeds in normalizing relations with all Arab states, “a lasting, just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East will remain elusive unless a Palestinian state is established in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.” Egypt was the first Arab country to normalize ties with Israel.

Among the guests were Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who called for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza and the flow of aid into the besieged territory. He said that the U.N. rejects any “forced displacement” of Palestinians.

Saturday’s summit comes two months after Israel ended a ceasefire reached with the Hamas militant group in January. In recent days, Israel has launched widespread attacks in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a further escalation to pursue his aim of destroying Hamas.

“This genocide has reached levels of ugliness not seen in all conflicts throughout history,” Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a speech that called for allowing aid to flow into Gaza. Al-Sudani added that Iraq will work on setting up an Arab fund for the reconstruction of the region in which Baghdad will pay $20 million for Gaza and a similar amount for Lebanon.

“We demand an immediate end to the Israeli aggression on Gaza and an end to hostilities that are increasing the suffering of innocent civilians,” said the final statement issued after the summit that was read by Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein. “Humanitarian aid should be allowed into all areas in Palestine without conditions.”

The leaders said they reject any attempt to displace Palestinians in Gaza saying that any such move would be “a crime against humanity and (an act of) ethnic cleansing.” The statement said Arab leaders support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' call for the holding of an international peace conference that leads to a two-state solution.

El-Sissi said that Egypt, in coordination with Qatar and the U.S., is “exerting intense efforts to reach a ceasefire” in Gaza, adding that the efforts led to the release of Israel-American hostage Edan Alexander. He said that Egypt plans to hold an international conference for the reconstruction of Gaza “once the aggression stops.”

Abbas, the Palestinian president, called on Hamas to abandon power in Gaza and along with other militant groups to hand over weapons to the Palestinian Authority. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas’ Western-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007, and reconciliation attempts between the rivals have repeatedly failed.

The Baghdad meeting was upstaged by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tour in the region earlier in the week. Trump’s visit did not usher in a deal for a new ceasefire in Gaza as many had hoped, but he grabbed headlines by meeting with new Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa — who had once fought against U.S. forces in Iraq — and promising to remove U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria.

Al-Sharaa did not attend the summit in Baghdad, where Syria’s delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani. Iraqi Shiite militias and political factions are wary of al-Sharaa’s past as a Sunni militant and had pushed back against his invitation to the summit.

During Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011, several Iraqi Shiite militias fought alongside the forces of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, making al-Sharaa today a particularly sensitive figure for them.

The statement issued after the summit said Arab leaders back Syria's unity and reject foreign intervention in the country. They condemned Israel's airstrikes and land incursions into Syria over the past months.

They praised Trump's plans to lift the sanctions imposed on Syria and the easing of European sanctions recently saying that would “speed up recovery and the reconstruction process” in the war-torn country.

An Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, said that Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani paid a visit to Baghdad prior to the summit and “conveyed messages of support for the Iranian-American negotiations” to reach a nuclear deal and lifting of crippling sanctions on Iran.

Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

Arab leaders attend the opening session of the 34th Arab League summit, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Foto/Hadi Mizban, Pool)

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani attends the 34th Arab League summitin Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Foto/Hadi Mizban, Pool)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres attends the 34th Arab League summit, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attends the 34th Arab League summit, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sissi attends the 34th Arab League summit, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, right, welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas upon arrival at Baghdad International Airport ahead of the 34th Arab League summit, in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday May 16, 2025. (Murtadha Al-Sudani/Pool Photo via AP)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam ahead of the 34th Arab League summit in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, May 16, 2025. (Thaier Al-Sudani/Pool Photo via AP)

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, center right, welcomes Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas upon arrival at Baghdad International Airport ahead of the 34th Arab League summit, in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday May 16, 2025. (Murtadha Al-Sudani/Pool Photo via AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A coordinated international operation has hit the infrastructure of a pro-Russian cybercrime network linked to a string of denial of service attacks targeting Ukraine and its allies, the European Union's police agency Europol announced Wednesday.

Codenamed Eastwood, the operation targeted the so-called NoName057(16) group, which was identified last month by Dutch authorities as being behind a series of denial-of-service attacks on several municipalities and organizations linked to a NATO summit in the Netherlands.

Europol said that the cybercrime network also was involved in attacks in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland.

The police agency said the international operation “led to the disruption of an attack-infrastructure consisting of over one hundred computer systems worldwide, while a major part of the group’s central server infrastructure was taken offline.”

Law enforcement and judicial authorities from France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United States took simultaneous actions against offenders and infrastructure belonging to the pro-Russian cybercrime network, it said.

Judicial authorities in Germany issued six arrest warrants for suspects in Russia, two of them accused of being the main leaders of the group, Europol said. Five of them were identified on Europol's Europe's Most Wanted website.

One suspect was placed under preliminary arrest in France and another detained in Spain, Europol said. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the operation.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said one person is in custody in France and communications equipment has been seized. No charges have yet been filed.

The attorney general’s office in Switzerland, which is not an EU member country, said in a statement Wednesday that joint investigations between Europol and Swiss federal police helped identify three leading members of the group, which is alleged to have targeted more than 200 Swiss websites.

Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal case over the incidents in June 2023, and since then identified several other denial-of-service attacks attributed to the activist group. The attacks included a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Swiss parliament and the popular Eurovision Song Contest, held in in Basel earlier this year.

Europol said members of the cybercrime group initially targeted Ukrainian institution, “but have shifted their focus to attacking countries that support Ukraine in the ongoing defence against the Russian war of aggression, many of which are members of NATO.”

Law enforcement authorities in countries involved in the operation contacted hundreds of people believed to support the group to inform them of the crackdown and their alleged liability for its actions.

“Individuals acting for NoName057(16) are mainly Russian-speaking sympathisers who use automated tools to carry out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Operating without formal leadership or sophisticated technical skills, they are motivated by ideology and rewards,” Europol said.

It added that people recruited by the group were paid in cryptocurrency and motivated using online-gaming dynamics like leader boards and badges.

“This gamified manipulation, often targeted at younger offenders, was emotionally reinforced by a narrative of defending Russia or avenging political events,” Europol said.

Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

FILE- The Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)