Three Qatari diplomats killed in car crash near Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh day before Gaza ceasefire summit

A car crash in Sharm El Sheikh, a Red Sea resort city in Egypt, claimed the lives of three Qatari diplomats, two security sources told Reuters on Sunday. In the crash, two more diplomats suffered injuries. According to the sources, the diplomats' vehicle flipped on a bend some fifty kilometers (31 miles) away from the city.

A global summit aiming at finalising a deal to stop the fighting in Gaza is scheduled to take place in the city the day before the catastrophe happened.

It's unclear if the diplomats were a part of Qatar's negotiation team, which this week mediated an initial agreement between Israel and Hamas on the first phase of US President Donald Trump's Gaza plan in Sharm El Sheikh with the assistance of Egyptian authorities. A global summit to finalise an accord to halt the crisis in Gaza is scheduled to take place in the city on Monday.

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will co-chair the next peace summit in Gaza. The meeting will bring together leaders from over 20 nations, the president said in a statement issued on Saturday.

 According to the statement, the summit's objectives are to put an end to the conflict in Gaza, bolster initiatives to advance Middle Eastern peace and stability, and usher in a new age of regional security. It was emphasised that the summit is in line with President Trump's goals for regional peace and his continuous attempts to end international hostilities.

A senior Hamas source told AFP that the organization will not be present at the formal signing of the peace agreement for Gaza in Egypt, citing differences with several aspects of Trump's proposal.

The Times of Israel said that Hamas authorities disapproved of the plan's calls for their members to evacuate the Gaza Strip, calling them 'absurd.'

Trump declared on Wednesday that the first part of a 20-point plan he published on September 29 had been agreed upon by Israel and Hamas.  A truce in Gaza, the release of all Israeli prisoners in return for some 2,000 Palestinian inmates, and the supervision of a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave are the objectives of the plan.

 The agreement's initial phase took effect on Friday at noon local time (0900 GMT). The peace plan's second phase aims to disarm Hamas, create a security force composed of Palestinians and troops from Arab and Islamic countries, and construct a new governance system in Gaza.