Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said his country will not accept masses of Palestinian refugees from Gaza through its border on the Sinai Peninsula, rejecting efforts from Israel amid its ongoing war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Sisi suggested Israel’s siege of Gaza and complete blockade on the territory is just an effort to force Egypt to accept Gazan refugees and prevent them from returning.
“We are rejecting the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the explosion of Palestinians to Sinai,” the Egyptian president said, adding that Sinai would be turned into a launching ground for “terrorist attacks” against Israel, which would in turn blame Egypt for such attacks.
He instead proposed that Israel move the Palestinians to the Negev region in Israel until it ends its “announced mission” of destroying Hamas.
Egypt has been reluctant to accept any refugees from Gaza since the beginning of the conflict, but has encouraged Israel to allow humanitarian aid convoys into the territory. Israel has continuously bombed the only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, closing it and preventing aid from entering.
Israel’s relentless bombing campaign, combined with the total blockade of the 140-square mile territory, has completely starved it of food, water, energy and medical supply reserves. United Nations experts have condemned Israel’s actions as war crimes, while others — including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — have described the efforts as an “ethnic cleansing.”
Nearly 3,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, according to the regional health ministry. About two-thirds of those deaths are children.
More than 500 people were also left dead after a hospital was bombed in the region Tuesday, which the Palestinian government claimed was an Israeli strike. Israel has placed the blame fr the explosion on a failed rocket launch by a separate Palestinian militant group — Islamic Jihad.
Egypt and Israel have kept peace since the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
The 50th anniversary of that war was marked by Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel more than a week ago, beginning the current conflict that has killed at least 1,200 Israelis.
The Associated Press contributed.