Mark Carney making last-minute trip to Egypt for Gaza peace summit

Prime Minister Mark Carney waves as he boards the government plane heading to Riga, Latvia from the airport in Hamburg, Germany on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney was set to leave Sunday afternoon for Egypt, to take part in a hastily organized summit surrounding the truce U.S. President Donald Trump helped arrange between Israel and Hamas.

Carney will join leaders from more than 20 countries in the Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi says he will co-chair a “peace summit.”

Heads of government and state will be represented from across the Middle East as well as France, Germany and the U.K.

Media were not notified of Carney’s trip before it had been confirmed through an update to his Sunday itinerary, roughly three hours before his plane was set to depart.

Sunday marked three days of a truce in which aid agencies are preparing to rush in food and medicine for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, just as Israel gradually draws back its soldiers.

Hamas is expected to release roughly 20 living hostages as early as Monday morning, in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Hamas would then release the bodies of about 28 dead Israeli hostages.

Trump brokered the truce, but questions remain over a longer-term ceasefire or whether a detailed peace deal will be reached.

He has said that the Sunday meeting will take a wider look at the Middle East, such as whether rich Arab nations could help finance the reconstruction of Gaza and how to end decades of strife between Israelis and Palestinians and possibly normalizing Israel’s relations with many Arab countries.

— With files from The Associated Press.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press