Women help Palestinians leave the Gaza Strip after Israeli airstrikes Photo: Anadolu Agency
Egypt reportedly considering deal to host up to 100,000 Palestinians displaced from the Gaza Strip in exchange for US debt relief.
Cairo is reportedly close to allowing Palestinians to enter through the now-closed Rafah border crossing in exchange for financial assistance, Egyptian media reported. reported with reference to 21 government and diplomatic sources.
In exchange for welcoming the Palestinians, Egypt was expected to receive financial support and debt relief from the United States as the North African country grapples with a severe economic crisis and rising inflation. , the report says.
Egypt has not officially commented on the report and does not deny that such a deal could be in the works.
This happened as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Cairo on Sunday as part of an emergency diplomatic tour of the region amid fears the war could escalate into a wider conflict involving Iran.
A girl is carried as Israeli forces bomb Gaza City Photo: Anadolu Agency
Mr Blinken arrived in Israel on Thursday and has since Since then he has visited six Arab countries.
He met with Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, the Egyptian president, with whom he was to discuss the fate of up to 600 US citizens who have been unable to leave the Gaza Strip since Israel began bombarding the enclave with air and artillery strikes in response to Hamas attacks last year. weekend.
Cairo suspects up to 300,000 Palestinians could seek refuge in the country's Sinai Peninsula as a result of the shelling and an expected Israeli ground offensive on the coastal enclave.
“We can’t allow everyone in 300,000 people,” said an unnamed security source. «We will have to allow some in… but no more than 100,000 should be allowed.»
The Israeli government has ordered 1.1 million civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to move south ahead of an expected ground offensive aimed at destroying Hamas. the multi-pronged attack killed more than 1,300 Israelis.
Amir Avivi, former deputy commander of the Israeli military's Gaza Division, on Friday called on Cairo to open the Rafah crossing and allow Palestinians to enter Egypt to prevent casualties.
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“Keeping them in the Gaza Strip… will put them at risk. This is a war zone and it is very difficult to protect civilians in this area. They need to move south into the Sinai Peninsula,” he told the BBC.
Internal resistance
But there was resistance within the country to the plan to allow Palestinians into the Gaza Strip, as opposition lawmaker Mustafa Bakri warned. on Saturday said Egypt «will fight any attempts to resettle Palestinians in Sinai.»
Ahmed Salem, executive director of the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, said the peninsula is not suitable for asylum seekers.
«If refugees come from Gaza, I don't know where they can be accommodated,» he said. said. “There are no shelters, hospitals or medical centers in the city of Rafah. There is no water or electricity.»
For the past 10 years, the Egyptian military has been fighting Islamist insurgents in northern Sinai.
As part of the campaign, authorities have evicted between 100,000 and 150,000 people from the region as fighting actions there destroyed homes, farms and infrastructure.
Hamas, which completely controls the Gaza Strip, has ruled out such a possibility. any deal to evacuate Palestinians to Egypt.
“There will be no migration from Gaza to Egypt,” Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s leader in Doha, said Saturday.
Meanwhile, Western efforts The Rafah border crossing to allow its citizens to leave the Gaza Strip has yet to bear fruit.
The US State Department said on Saturday it had reached an agreement with Egypt to open the border to US citizens from 12:00 to 17:00 .
No guarantees
But the crossing, which has been closed since Tuesday, remained closed. Egyptian media reported that Cairo blocked its reopening due to a lack of guarantees that humanitarian aid supplies would be allowed to pass safely into the Gaza Strip.
Israeli bombing on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, the main The Gaza crossing, not controlled by Israel, has disrupted operations there.
James Cleverley said yesterday that Britain had also failed to open a crossing to help British citizens leave the enclave.
Minister Foreign Affairs said it was working with Israel, Egypt and «other major political forces in the region» to reopen the border, adding that it was also key to providing «humanitarian support to the people of Gaza.»
< p>Help from multiple countries in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is accumulating due to the failure to reach an agreement to ensure its safe delivery to Gaza.
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