2023-10-12 09:47:38
Intensive Egyptian communications and movements continue to prevent a “mass exodus” from the Gaza Strip to the Sinai Peninsula, while the repeated Israeli bombing of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing caused the closure of the only exit port from the Strip, amid American media reports that US President Joe Biden discussed during a conversation between him Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated work to evacuate a number of Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt, and those reports said that the White House “is discussing this step with other countries to begin this procedure.”
Archyde.com (Wednesday) quoted what it described as two Egyptian security sources as saying that the Israeli attack on Gaza “raises concerns from Cairo, which called on Israel to open a safe corridor for civilians to leave the Gaza Strip instead of encouraging them to flee towards Sinai.”
On Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi described the current escalation between Israel and the Palestinians as “extremely dangerous” and has repercussions that may affect the security and stability of the region. He added that his country “will not allow the Palestinian issue to be liquidated at the expense of other parties,” in a clear reference to the danger of pushing the Palestinians into Sinai.
Destruction in Gaza as a result of Israeli raids (AFP)
According to American reports, Washington is working in coordination with Israel and Egypt to open a “humanitarian corridor designated for the exit of Palestinians and American citizens from the Gaza Strip to Egypt.”
This information was also received by the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Herzog, who said: “I cannot speak on behalf of the Egyptians, but I am sure they will allow this.”
US National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan confirmed this information but refused to give any details.
As Israel continues to tighten its siege on the Gaza Strip, and prevents any attempt to open safe corridors for the entry of relief and life aid to the Strip’s population of more than two million people, fears are increasing of a repeat of the scene of 2008, when thousands of Palestinians invaded the border with Egypt, and the Egyptian authorities then allowed them to stay. In Sinai for several weeks, to provide for their needs before returning them to the Strip.
For his part, the Chairman of the Defense and National Security Committee of the Egyptian House of Representatives (the first chamber of Parliament), Ahmed Al-Awadi, confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Egyptian support for the Palestinian people is “absolute and unlimited, officially and popularly,” but he added at the same time that “that support does not contradict “With Egypt’s insistence on protecting its sovereignty and national security against any attempt to target.”
Al-Awadi pointed out that re-raising the issue of displacing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and pushing them to migrate to Egyptian lands in any way is “a completely unacceptable issue, because it represents the liquidation of the Palestinian cause.” Al-Awadi noted the statements that he described as “decisive” by the Egyptian President about protecting Egyptian national security and preserving the constants of the Palestinian issue by not emptying the Gaza Strip of its population, noting in this regard that the Egyptian moves were “proactive” when Egypt provided a grant worth 500 million. Dollars for the reconstruction of the Strip in 2021, and Egyptian companies have implemented many development projects to support and support the people of Gaza.
High-ranking Egyptian security sources had previously warned, through statements to Egyptian media, of an attempt to push the Palestinians in Gaza to flee towards the Egyptian border as a result of the ongoing Israeli bombing of the Strip. The sources said that “Egyptian sovereignty is not permissible.”
The former Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister and member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, Rakha Ahmed Hassan, considered that the one being addressed in the issue of safe passages “is Israel and not any other country,” noting that the Israeli occupation forces’ deliberate bombing of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing “represents a clear message to be carefully considered.” In suffocating and besieging the Gaza Strip, and blocking any attempt to open humanitarian corridors to support the residents of the Strip after Egypt succeeded in bringing in trucks carrying food and medicine.
Hassan added to Asharq Al-Awsat that what happened in 2008, with thousands of Palestinians entering Egyptian territory and supplying their needs with the approval of the Egyptian authorities, “was a different matter,” noting that what he described as “the current state of Israeli obsession and the frenzied strikes on the residents of the Gaza Strip are trying to impose a new reality that cannot be “It can be accepted.”
He pointed to what he described as the “shameful negligence” on the part of Western officials, led by the figures of the American administration, who refuse to merely pressure Israel to respond to efforts to open safe corridors and paths for relief aid, expressing his hope that the upcoming visit of the US Secretary of State to the region will contribute to “resolving the situation.” “Towards some sort of breakthrough.”
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