Cairo has reiterated calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza-based terrorist groups, days after a cross-border raid by the latter that left hundreds of Israelis dead.
Cairo is in contact with both sides of the conflict in hopes of “containing the crisis and mitigating the humanitarian impact on civilians in Gaza,” according to Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979, becoming the first Arab country to do so. Since then, it has played a mediating role between the Jewish state and Palestinian factions.
Neither of the two warring sides, however, appears ready to discuss ceasefire terms.
On Oct. 7, Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas led a deadly raid into Israel that left about 1,300 Israelis—soldiers and civilians—dead.
Since then, Israeli warplanes have relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip, which is home to about 2.3 million Palestinians.
On Oct. 12, Gaza’s Health Ministry said that more than 1,400 Palestinians had been killed—and another 6,000 injured—in repeated airstrikes.
Most of the casualties were women and children, Yusuf Abu al-Reesh, Gaza’s deputy health minister, said.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 1,000 homes across the enclave have been leveled by repeated Israeli bombardments.
Israel, meanwhile, has cut off supplies of food, water, fuel, and electricity into the beleaguered territory, prompting fears of a looming humanitarian crisis.
“The Gaza Strip will witness an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe if safe corridors aren’t opened to humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, food, and water,” a spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency on Oct. 11.
Border Crossing Disabled
Only 225 square miles in size, the Gaza Strip, which shares a 7 1/2-mile border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, is no stranger to sieges by Israel.Since 2007, the Hamas-run area has remained under a crippling blockade—by air, land, and sea—imposed by both the Israeli and Egyptian authorities.
For the past 16 years, Egypt’s Rafah border crossing in northern Sinai has been the only means in or out of the densely populated territory.
The Egyptian government, however, which is no friend of Hamas, has kept the Rafah crossing shut, with a few occasional exceptions.
But given the scope of destruction now underway, Cairo has stressed the need to open the border to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“Egypt has been resolute in keeping the Rafah crossing open to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, and will persist in providing all necessary humanitarian support to the Palestinian people,” Mr. Shoukry said on Oct. 11.
But since the latest round of violence began, Israeli warplanes have struck the Rafah crossing twice—on Oct. 9 and Oct. 10—making aid deliveries all but impossible.
According to Palestinian sources, the second strike forced Gazan officials to vacate the border area entirely.
On Oct. 12, Egypt’s foreign ministry denied reports that the crossing had been rendered inoperable.
Nevertheless, it conceded that vital infrastructure on the Palestinian side had been severely damaged.
Cairo has since designated Egypt’s Al-Arish Airport, located about 30 miles west of Rafah, as a transit hub for international aid bound for Gaza.
Qatar and Jordan have both reportedly dispatched planes to Egypt bearing supplies of desperately needed humanitarian aid.
As of the time of writing, however, it remained unclear how incoming aid supplies would be transported across the border into Gaza.
Fears of ‘Resettlement’ in Sinai
On Oct. 10, an Israeli military spokesman advised frightened Gazans to flee to Egypt en masse via the embattled Rafah crossing.Although he later issued a “clarification,” the spokesman’s message disconcerted Cairo, which has long resisted Israeli proposals to “resettle” Gaza’s Palestinians in the Sinai Peninsula.
According to an Egyptian security source cited by Egypt’s Al-Ahram news agency, such a scheme aims to give Gazans a choice “between death by bombardment or displacement.”
“Egypt has and will confront this [alleged Israeli plan], which has also been unanimously rejected by the Palestinian people who insist on their rights and land,” the security source was quoted as saying.
Although Cairo supports calls for an independent Palestinian state, it remains deeply opposed to Hamas.
In 2013, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power in a bloody military coup that ousted and imprisoned his predecessor, Mohamed Morsi.
The country’s first democratically elected leader, Mr. Morsi, who died in prison in 2019, had been a member of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood group, of which Hamas is an offshoot.
Following the 2013 coup, Egypt outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and waged a wide-ranging crackdown on the group.
In an indication of Cairo’s antipathy toward Hamas, Egypt claims that it gave Israel advance warning of Hamas’s deadly cross-border raid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the claims as “absolutely false.”
However, on Oct. 11, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Egypt did in fact try to warn Israel.
“We know Egypt warned the Israelis three days prior that an event like this could happen,” Mr. McCaul was quoted as saying by AFP.
“I don’t want to get too much into classified [information],” he told reporters after an intelligence briefing. “But a warning was given.”
