Cairo received new American support by rejecting the plan to “displace” Palestinians from Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai, while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for the international community to move urgently to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Sisi’s statements came during a phone call with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Thursday, in which they discussed developments in the Israeli military escalation in Gaza, according to an Egyptian presidential spokesman.
Al-Sisi pointed to “the extremely dangerous humanitarian situation, in addition to the widespread destruction witnessed in the Gaza Strip,” calling for “a firm international position to stop bloodshed, implement humanitarian aid, and provide the opportunity for political solutions.”
Egypt seeks, through various political moves, to activate a quick truce in Gaza and ensure a greater flow of relief aid. As part of these movements, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received, on Thursday, calls from Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, Nanaia Mahuta, New Zealand Foreign Minister, and Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union.
According to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Shukry exchanged detailed assessments with officials about the security and humanitarian conditions in Gaza, and their potential repercussions on regional and international peace and security, and stressed “the necessity of reaching an immediate humanitarian truce; To preserve the lives of Palestinians, provide the necessary protection for civilians, and reject the violations and collective punishment policies carried out by Israel; From a siege and forced displacement of the people of the Gaza Strip.”
The Egyptian Minister stressed the importance of the Security Council fulfilling its legal and humanitarian responsibility towards “ending this tragic situation in Gaza, calling the violations and their perpetrators by their names, and intervening immediately to stop the escalation.”
In a Russian statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the views of the two parties “agreed on an immediate ceasefire, the sustainable entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the release of the hostages.”
On the other hand, on Thursday, Egypt received new American support with an implicit rejection of Israeli plans to displace the residents of Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai. The Acting US Ambassador to Egypt, Elizabeth Jones, said, “The United States fully respects Egypt’s sovereignty and its national security needs,” adding in an embassy statement that “the United States is fully committed to ensuring that Palestinians are not displaced from Gaza to Egypt or any other country.” She also welcomed With the news coming from the Rafah border crossing regarding a number of foreign nationals crossing the crossing, coming from the Palestinian side.
She indicated that the American leadership is grateful to the Egyptian leadership for facilitating the safe passage of foreign citizens from Gaza.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has previously affirmed, on several occasions, Egypt’s firm position of “rejecting policies of collective punishment and displacement,” stressing that Egypt “has not and will not allow the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egyptian territory.”
The Israeli Ministry of Intelligence proposed in an official document “to transfer the population of the Gaza Strip, numbering 2.3 million people, to the Sinai Peninsula,” according to what was reported by the Associated Press news agency. The document, whose authenticity was acknowledged by the Israeli authorities a few days ago, included transferring the civilian population of Gaza to “tent cities in northern Sinai, then building permanent cities for them and establishing a security zone inside Israel to prevent displaced Palestinians from entering.”
At the end of last October, US President Joe Biden, in contact with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, confirmed work to “ensure that the Palestinians of Gaza are not forced to flee to Egypt or any other country.”
For the second day, evacuations of the wounded and foreigners continued in Egypt, according to an agreement between Israel, Egypt, Hamas, and the United States, allowing some holders of foreign passports, their families, and some wounded residents of Gaza, to leave the besieged Strip.
Egypt is preparing to receive about 7,000 foreigners as part of the evacuation process from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, according to what the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement on Thursday.
Assistant Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs and Egyptians Abroad, Ismail Khairat, said that the number of those his country will receive is “about 7,000 foreign citizens who hold the nationalities of more than 60 countries.”
On the first day of opening the crossing, Wednesday, Egypt received 76 wounded, while the number of foreigners and dual nationals who left the Gaza Strip reached 335, according to the Egyptian official in charge of the Rafah crossing.
The spokesman for the Hamas Ministry of Health, Ashraf Al-Qudra, told Agence France-Presse that a list was sent to the Egyptian authorities that included 4,000 wounded people in need of care that does not exist in the Gaza Strip. He added: “We hope that they will be able to leave in the coming days; Because they need surgical interventions… We must save their lives.”
2023-11-03 08:06:57
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