Bloody, intractable and defined by hatred and occupation, the Palestine-Israel conflict is perhaps the most enduring in today's world.
So, it may have seemed overly optimistic, even unrealistic, when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his American counterpart Donald Trump said the Gaza ceasefire reached last week gave the Middle East a new dawn, or that it was on the cusp of a golden age.
These are big words rarely heard in a region in which Israel has waged wars on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran and bombed Syria, Qatar and Yemen in the past two years alone.
And that is not all. Civil war is ravaging Sudan, where more than 13 million people have been displaced and millions more are starving. Libya continues to be beset by a de facto partition with bouts of deadly violence.
Yet Mr El Sisi and Mr Trump may have had good reason to raise expectations when speaking at the peace summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh on Monday. The summit, attended by nearly 30 world leaders, came three days after a milestone truce in Gaza, brokered by the US and its allies Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.
The significance of the ceasefire cannot be exaggerated. It has paused a war, the brutality and unforgivably high human cost of which has not been matched in any other Middle East conflict in the modern era. Nearly 70,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory's health authorities, and more than twice that many wounded.
The tiny enclave on the Mediterranean has mostly been laid to waste, and its 2.3 million residents have been displaced repeatedly. The UN declared famine in Gaza in August as hundreds of thousands of people grappled with starvation.
The optimism of the two leaders could also be attributed to the fact that the summit they co-chaired coincided with the much-heralded release of 20 Israeli hostages held by Hamas since October 2023 and nearly 2,000 Palestinians who had been incarcerated in Israel.
Those jubilant scenes of the hostages and prisoners reunited with their families and loved ones may have also had something to do with the upbeat rhetoric that prevailed in Sharm El Sheikh.
"Together we have achieved what everybody said was impossible," Mr Trump told his Egyptian host about the ceasefire and hostage-detainee exchange, the first phase of the US President's 20-point Gaza peace plan announced last month.
"The war in Gaza is over," he declared. "It is really beautiful. The level of love and sorrow is just incredible. In one sense, it's horrible that it could have taken place. But in another sense, it is so beautiful to see a new and beautiful peace rising.
"This is a monumental day, a monumental moment in the history of the world beyond the Middle East," he said. Addressing Israel's parliament earlier on Monday, he described it as the beginning of a “new dawn of a new Middle East”.
Mr El Sisi matched the US President's optimism in his speech at the summit, calling for the Gaza conflict to be "the last war in the Middle East" and announcing his complete faith in Mr Trump's ability to see nor the full implementation of his plan.
"We are looking at a unique and historic opportunity, perhaps the last one, to create a Middle East that's without what threatens its stability and progress," said Mr El Sisi, Egypt's leader of 11 years.
The declaration issued at the end of the summit contained neither an outline nor a timeline for the implementation of Mr Trump's plan, nor for how wider regional peace will be achieved. The language was highbrow and distinctly hopeful.
It said the Gaza ceasefire opened "a new chapter for the region defined by hope, security and a shared vision for peace and prosperity". Referring to Mr Trump's plan, it said: "Together, we will implement this agreement in a manner that ensures peace, security, stability, and opportunity for all peoples of the region, including both Palestinians and Israelis."
Signed by Mr Trump, Mr El Sisi, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim, the declaration commits the four leaders to endeavour to achieve what has often proved impossible in the past.
“We seek tolerance, dignity and equal opportunity for every person, ensuring this region is a place where all can pursue their aspirations in peace, security and economic prosperity, regardless of race, faith or ethnicity.
“We pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security and shared prosperity in the region, grounded in the principles of mutual respect and shared destiny," it said.
What remains to be negotiated in Mr Trump's plan promises to be difficult and a great deal more complicated than agreeing on a ceasefire and a hostages-for-prisoners swap. The second and third phases provide for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza – something Israel has repeatedly said it will not do – and the negotiation of a long-term ceasefire.
Just as formidable will be the question of who governs postwar Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas, whose own future as a "resistance" movement will have to end before it morphs into a political, non-violent faction.
An example of how difficult it might prove to be to persuade Hamas to disarm or stay out of a postwar government emerged soon after Israel pulled back its military in Gaza under the agreement.
Armed Hamas policemen swiftly appeared on the streets of Gaza's cities. The militant group also carried out public executions of rival militiamen and people it accuses of collaborating with Israel. When busloads of detainees freed from Israeli jails arrived in Gaza on Monday, fighters from Hamas's Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, its military wing, provided crowd control.
