Egypt’s refusal to open border with Gaza for refugees explained

Egypt has been facing a dilemma for weeks over the opening of the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip: Cairo wants to help the most seriously affected Palestinians leave the country, but categorically refuses to consider the possibility of an influx of Palestinian refugees into the Sinai Peninsula. “We are ready to sacrifice millions of lives to ensure that no one encroaches on our territory,” Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said earlier this week.

As The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour writes in his analysis, negotiations to allow wounded Palestinians and some foreign nationals out of the besieged enclave, largely overseen by Qatar, were inextricably linked to the flow of humanitarian aid from Egypt into Gaza through the same crossing. .

US President Joe Biden has agreed to deliver humanitarian aid through Rafah, but its volume is small compared to what the Palestinian sector really needs. On Wednesday, UN humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths renewed his call for Israel to reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing on the southern tip of Gaza.

Some have criticized Egypt and its authoritarian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for failing to open its borders to Palestinians since Israeli bombing began in response to the Hamas massacre on October 7, The Guardian recalls.

Sisi said at the Cairo summit on October 21 that the world should never accept the use of human suffering to force displacement. “Egypt has reaffirmed and reiterates its strong opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians and their transfer to Egyptian lands in the Sinai, as this will mark the last gasp in the liquidation of the Palestinian cause, destroy the dream of an independent Palestinian state and nullify the struggle of the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic peoples in during the struggle for Palestine, which has been going on for 75 years,” said the Egyptian President.

Leaks from the Israeli government, in the form of a recent Intelligence Ministry concept paper, suggest that one of Israel’s plans was indeed to expel tens of thousands of Palestinians to the Sinai on a nominally temporary basis. Palestinians fear a repeat of what they call the Nakba (catastrophe) – the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians in 1948 after the creation of Israel.

It also appears that Egypt does not want to repeat the experience of Lebanon and Jordan, which have been hosting Palestinian refugees for decades, says Patrick Wintour. Egyptian President Sisi considers housing up to 1 million Palestinians in camps in his country a political risk that is not worth taking.

Some of the pro-Palestinian protests he sanctioned already used slogans and symbols of the Arab Spring revolution on January 25, 2011 in Egypt, chanting “bread, freedom and social justice.” Sisi needs to channel pro-Palestinian sentiment to his advantage.

Even mentions of a mass exodus make Sisi nervous. The Cairo-based news outlet Mada Masr was suspended for six months and referred to the attorney general’s office after publishing a report on what it said were plans to move Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai.

On Wednesday, Rafah opened to the evacuation of dozens of wounded Palestinians and hundreds of foreign passport holders, but no one knows how long the situation will last. Moreover, the selection process for those who can leave, agreed between Israel and Egypt in Qatar, is opaque. National embassies can apparently lobby for citizens’ rights to cross the border, but have no say.

Egypt is concerned that the trickle is turning into an avalanche: Sisi has assembled a mass of tanks on the Egyptian side of the border to prevent this, writes The Guardian.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is due to arrive in the region on Friday, is clearly hopeful that the orderly flow of foreign nationals leaving Gaza will continue and that it could lead to the release of more hostages, increased aid flows and even a humanitarian pause, creating a diplomatic virtuous circle.

The UN said on Tuesday that 59 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered Gaza through Rafah, the largest convoy since aid deliveries resumed on October 21, bringing the total to 217. The goal is to have increase capacity to 100 trucks per day.

The normal flow before Israel imposed the blockade was between 500 and 800 trucks per day, illustrating how deep the humanitarian disaster remains.

Israeli officials are also beginning to highlight the aid coming to Gaza in tweets intended for international consumption. The import of fuel needed to operate life-saving equipment is still prohibited, but water is currently being supplied by Israel through an existing pipe.

In an op-ed published this week in the Washington Post, Blinken made it clear to Israel that it would be in the interest of its own security to allow Egypt to send more aid to Gaza. He wrote: “Providing immediate aid and protection to Palestinian civilians in the conflict is also a necessary basis for finding partners in Gaza who have a different vision for the future than Hamas and who are willing to help make it a reality. We will not be able to find these partners if they are consumed by the humanitarian disaster and alienated by our seeming indifference to their plight.”