The forcible relocation of Palestinians into Sinai would be opposed by millions of Egyptians, according to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who also said that such a move would turn the Egyptian peninsula into a base for strikes against Israel.
A White House official later said that 20 trucks delivering humanitarian aid would enter Gaza from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in the coming days, following a phone discussion between Sisi and U.S. President Joe Biden.
The route needed some repairs initially, said to White House spokesperson John Kirby, who expressed hope that more trucks would follow. A “sustainable manner” of aid delivery was agreed upon, according to the Egyptian presidency.
Egypt has been attempting to send aid to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, but after Israeli bombings rendered the crossing operational, aid has been accumulating on the Egyptian side.
Egypt has been concerned about the possibility that Israel’s extraordinary assault and siege of Gaza, a region with 2.3 million inhabitants, could drive its citizens into Sinai.
Palestinians might be relocated to Israel’s Negev desert instead of the Gaza Strip because it is practically under Israeli control, Sisi and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a news conference in Cairo.
The only passage from Palestinian territory that is not under Israeli control is at the border between the Sinai and the Gaza Strip.
According to Sisi, the Egyptian populace will “go out and protest in their millions… if called upon to do so” in opposition to any relocation of Gaza’s citizens to Sinai.
At a news conference in Beirut, Hamas leader Osama Hamdan referred to the Egyptian stance and urged “for rallying around this position and supporting it on the popular and Arab official level because this offers our Palestinian people genuine security.
SECURITY ISSUES
Egypt is cautious of unrest in the northeastern Sinai region, where an Islamist insurgency peaked a decade ago, which is close to its border with Gaza.
According to Sisi, any transfer of Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula would entail “moving the concept of resistance, of combat, from the Gaza Strip to the Sinai, and Sinai would thus become the base for launching operations against Israel.”
Jordan, which shares a border with the West Bank with Israel and has taken in the majority of the Palestinians who fled or were forcibly removed from their homes as Israel was founded, has also issued a warning against the expropriation of Palestinian land.
The evacuation of some foreign passport holders from Gaza is anticipated to be a component of any strategy for aid delivery into Sinai; Egyptian officials have made this need a requirement for aid entry.
Following discussions with Biden on Wednesday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel would not obstruct Egypt from supplying Gaza with humanitarian goods.
While Israel had remained obstinate, late on Wednesday it had indicated areas in Gaza where aid might be supplied but had not defined a time when the border crossing could resume working safely, according to two Egyptian security sources.
Following the explosion that left hundreds of people dead in a hospital in Gaza, new rage spread throughout the Middle East. Palestinian and Israeli officials each laid blame for the killings on the other.
On the Egyptian side of Rafah, waiting volunteers offered a funeral rite for the deceased.
In protest over the bomb and what they perceive to be Washington’s pro-Israel bias, Sisi and other Arab leaders cancelled a meeting with Biden.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Egyptians demonstrated in central Cairo and on the campus of Cairo University. Reuters
Cairo protestors screamed “Open the crossing!” and “The people want Israel fall while police trucks stood close.
Source: Reuters
