Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has strongly criticised Israel for reportedly considering a complete military takeover of Gaza.
Mr Sisi said the Gaza conflict was “no longer a war to achieve political objectives or secure the release of hostages. It has become a war of starvation, genocide, and the elimination of the Palestinian cause”.
He said that although Egypt, Qatar and the United States had conducted negotiations to stop the war, deliver aid and secure the release of Israeli hostages, mediation has reached a point of “bankruptcy”.
Mr Sisi said there were more than 5,000 trucks of aid waiting in Egypt to enter Gaza. He denied Egypt was preventing aid reaching the Strip and said the Egyptian crossing at Rafah had been damaged and repaired four times while operational.
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The Palestinian side of the border at Rafah was occupied in May last year by Israel, granting it total control of all aid entering Gaza.
Mr Sisi also said that while Gazans were facing “systematic genocide”, Egypt would “not be the gateway for the displacement of the Palestinian people” if Israel tried to expel Gazans into Egypt.
United Nations agencies have reported that Israel’s blockade has left Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians on the brink of famine.
Mr Sisi said: “History will hold many countries accountable for their stance on the war in Gaza, and the global human conscience will not remain silent for long.”
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has reported that more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 22-month war.
Mr Sisi’s comments are significant as Egypt was the first Arab state to reach a peace treaty with Israel despite stiff opposition in the Arab region.
Following the treaty’s signing in 1979, Egypt lost billions of dollars in Arab aid as a frontline state and it was suspended from the Arab League. The alliance’s headquarters were also moved from the Egyptian capital Cairo to Tunis in Tunisia. In 1981 president Anwar Sadat was assassinated over the treaty.
Arab nations had said the price of peace and recognition of Israel was Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and Syria’s Golan, which were occupied in 1967.
While widely unpopular domestically, Egypt’s treaty led to the failed 1993 Oslo accords between the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and Israel; then Jordan’s 1994 peace treaty with Israel; and Emirati, Bahraini and Moroccan normalisation of ties with Israel in 2020.
Debate over Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan for the reoccupation of all Gaza has taken place in advance of the 20th anniversary of the beginning on August 15th, 2005, of Israel’s withdrawal of 8,000 settlers from 21 Israeli settlements in the strip.
Thousands of Israeli troops compelled resisting settlers to evacuate during the process, which was completed on September 12th, leaving Gaza controlled by Israel by land borders, air and sea.
The disengagement plan, implemented by then prime minister Ariel Sharon – who claimed it would improve Israel’s “security, political and demographic situation” – was contested by Mr Netanyahu.
