“The forced movement of Palestinians cannot be imposed,” says Egyptian President Sisi

“The forced movement of Palestinians cannot be imposed,” he said today the president of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisiwarning of mass exodus of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egyptwhich he sees as the first stage before “a similar movement of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan” and “the end of the Palestinian cause.”

Palestinians could be moved to Israel’s Negev desert “until the militants are dealt with,” he noted. Welcoming German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Cairo, the Egyptian president delivered his most comprehensive and scathing speech since the October 7 start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, which has claimed thousands of lives and on both sides and has displaced a million people in the small Palestinian enclave on the border with Egypt.

Pushing Palestinians to leave their land is “a way to end the Palestinian cause at the expense of neighboring countries,” the Egyptian president noted. “The idea of ​​forcing Gazans to move to Egypt will lead to a similar movement of Palestinians from the West Bank,” Israeli-occupied territory, “and that will make the establishment of a Palestinian state impossible».

According to APE-MPE, President al-Sisi warned “If I ask the Egyptian people to take to the streets, there will be millions who will support Egypt’s position”, also citing “Arab public opinion” and “Muslim public opinion “, which deal sensitively with “the Palestinian case, which is the greatest of cases”.

At a time when people are calling for the opening of the Rafa border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, Sisi reiterated that his country “did not close the Rafah terminal” to Gaza, but humanitarian aid is not entering the Palestinian territory because of “Israeli bombardment”. For days, hundreds of trucks are stranded in the Egyptian Sinai desertas they cannot pass through the Rafah Pass to transport aid to the 2.4 million residents of Gazaat a time when the World Health Organization (WHO) now states that “every second that passes waiting for medical assistance, we lose lives”.

The German chancellor said for his part that he went to Egypt to “work together to have humanitarian access to Gaza as soon as possible”. He also noted that Germany wants to support Egypt’s efforts to de-escalate tensions after Hamas attacked Israel. “Together with Egypt, we want to work to mitigate the terrible consequences of the war,” added Olaf Solz, noting that he and the Egyptian president also discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The issue of opening the Rafah border crossing is crucial for Egypt, which is faced with a dilemma: to allow the Palestinians to leave at the risk of Israel denying them any return, or to close their only opening to the world that is not under Israeli control, and to leave them under the airstrikes and incessant artillery fire.

To the issue of creating more Palestinian refugees, who are already almost six million in the world since the establishment of Israel in 1948, the issue of security is added for Egypt. “By moving the Palestinians to Sinai, we are moving the resistance and the struggle to EgyptSisi pointed out. And if attacks are launched from its territory, “Israel will then have the right to defend itself […] and it will hit Egyptian soil,” he warned.

Then, he continued, the peace made between Israel and Egypt in 1979 – making Cairo the first Arab country to recognize Israel and therefore one of the biggest beneficiaries of American military aid – “will crumble in our hands.” .

Recently, former Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon called on Egypt to “play the game” and set up tent camps to “temporarily” host Palestinians in the Sinai, noting that there is “almost unlimited space.” “If the idea is forced displacement, there is the Negev,” the desert in southern Israel, Sisi replied today. “And Israel can then send them back (to Gaza) if it wants to,” he added.

The war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas began after its militants launched a surprise attack on October 7 in Israel, which has since carried out retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip. The conflict has left over 1,400 dead on the Israeli side and over 3,000 on the Palestinian side.