Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi stressed on Tuesday the importance of reaching a "quick" ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to Israeli genocide for more than 14 months.

This came during a phone call that Sisi received from the President of the Greek Cypriot Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, according to a statement by the Egyptian presidency, amid talk of Egyptian-Qatari efforts to conclude a prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and the Hamas movement.

The presidency said that Sisi stressed during the call "the importance of quickly reaching an agreement to cease fire in the Gaza Strip, exchanging hostages and detainees (Palestinian prisoners and Israeli detainees), and ensuring the entry of humanitarian aid to the people of the Strip without restrictions or obstacles."

Earlier on Tuesday, Egyptian media reported that "there are intensive Egyptian-Qatari efforts with all parties to reach a truce agreement in the Gaza Strip," without further details.

With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, resulting in more than 152,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

In the context, the Egyptian presidency said that Sisi and his counterpart in Greek Cyprus stressed "the strategic nature of bilateral relations between the two countries, and the necessity of working to strengthen them, especially in the areas of economic, investment and trade cooperation and in the energy file."

The two leaders also discussed "regional developments," while the Egyptian president stressed "the need to preserve Syria's unity and territorial integrity."

He stressed "the importance of starting a comprehensive political process that includes all components and spectrums of the Syrian people," according to the same source.

On December 8, Syrian factions took control of the capital Damascus and other cities before that, with the withdrawal of regime forces from public institutions and streets, thus ending a 61-year era of Baath Party rule and 53 years of Assad family rule.