“Egypt rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians to its lands and will not allow it,” the Egyptian leader said on the sidelines of an Egyptian-European summit in Cairo.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said on Sunday his country will not allow the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, Anadolu news agency reported.
The comments were made during talks with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of an Egyptian-European summit in Cairo.
“Egypt rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians to its lands and will not allow it,” the Egyptian leader said as cited by a presidential statement.
Sisi also reportedly underlined the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Egypt Warns against Rafah Invasion
Egypt also warned on Sunday against an Israeli ground attack on Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that an attack on Rafah, where 1.4 million people have taken refuge from the ongoing Israeli war, would have grave humanitarian consequences.
“It will harm Palestinian civilians who took refuge in Rafah as the last safe haven inside Gaza,” the statement said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday approved military plans for a ground operation in Rafah.
Netanyahu Rejects Hamas Truce Proposal, Approves Rafah Invasion Plans
“Any operation (in Rafah), despite international rejection, reflects indifference to the lives of innocent civilians, and is a grave violation of international law and international humanitarian law,” the ministry reportedly added.
Egypt also called on Israel to stop its policies “of collective punishment against the residents of the Gaza Strip, including siege, starvation, indiscriminate targeting of civilians, and the destruction of infrastructure.”
It demanded international stakeholders and the UN Security Council to shoulder their responsibilities by calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 31,645 Palestinians have been killed, and 73,676 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’
(PC, Anadolu)
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