According to security sources cited by the Reuters news agency, Egypt, a country that borders the Gaza Strip to the north, is preparing an area on the border that could house Palestinians. All in the midst of fears of an incursion by the Israeli Army into the city of Rafah, in Gaza, where more than half of the enclave's inhabitants have moved due to incessant Israeli attacks in other areas of the strip. However, Cairo has not confirmed that the construction will be used to house refugees and its official version throughout the war has been that it will not welcome Gazans for fear that they will not be able to re-enter.
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Will Egypt shelter the Gazan population in the face of the escalation of the war in Gaza?
Although Egypt has for years flatly refused that possibility, three security sources interviewed by the Reuters news agency indicated that Egypt has begun preparing a desert area, with some basic facilities, that could be used to house the Palestinians. The sources emphasized that this is a contingency measure.
Simultaneously, satellite images, analyzed by the AP news agency, show the construction of a wall and the leveling of land near the border area that, on the contrary, could contain a possible avalanche of Palestinians.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on February 11 warning Israel about the possible Rafah offensive and its “displacement of the Palestinian people.”
Preparations on the Egyptian side, in the Sinai Peninsula, suggest that Cairo could be preparing for a mass forced exodus, a scenario that could threaten the 1979 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, which has been a linchpin for the regional security.
The information comes at a time when the Israeli Army intensifies its offensive in the south of the enclave and there are fears of a land incursion into the city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where around 1.7 million people have moved. people of the 2.3 million Gazan citizens, in search of relative protection.
Israel's defense minister said his country has “no intention” of pushing Palestinian civilians across the border into Egypt. However, throughout the war the Israeli Army has ensured that it would provide safe areas for civilians, which it has bombed, so for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who take refuge in this place, fleeing the country could be the only way. to save their lives.
The information comes as pressure increases on Israel to avoid a ground offensive in Rafah, which has already been attacked by air. The call for Benjamin Netanyahu's troops to refrain from escalating attacks comes from almost all sectors, including allied countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Furthermore, the shadow of a return to the International Court of Justice looms over Israel, which on January 26 ordered the Jewish-majority country to prevent “acts of genocide,” in response to the lawsuit filed by the Government of South Africa that accused to the Netanyahu Government of that crime.
After four months of war, the international community's opposition to Israel's attacks, which began after the bloody Hamas assault on October 7, is increasing. In recent weeks, Israel's actions have been criticized, even by US President Joe Biden, who described the armed response as “exaggerated.”
UN: “An exodus of Palestinians must be avoided at all costs”
This was stated by the UN High Commissioner for Palestinian Refugees, Filippo Grandi. Although the official has repeatedly warned of the death risks faced by the Palestinians, crowded in the besieged strip of land, Grandi explained that a mass exodus of Gazans to Egypt could be the “nail in the coffin” of an eventual peace process.
More than half of the enclave's population is trapped in Rafah, seeking refuge in a sprawling makeshift camp near the Egyptian border.
“Egypt's position has been very clear. People should not cross the border. I think Egypt has very valid reasons,” said Filippo Grandi in an interview with the British BBC, from the Munich Security Conference, in which he participates.
“It would be catastrophic for Palestinians to be displaced again. “It would be catastrophic for Egypt from every point of view and, more important than anything else, a new refugee crisis would almost be the nail in the coffin of a future peace process,” Grandi stressed.
Grandi warned that once citizens leave Gaza they will no longer be able to return – as happened in 1948 –, something that would ruin the possibility of a two-state solution, that of Israel, created more than 70 years ago, and the eventual Palestinian state, still not established.
With Reuters and AP
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