Sisi rejects attempts to displace Palestinians to Sinai, says escalation will have security, humanitarian repercussions

CAIRO - 18 October 2023: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stated on Wednesday that what is happening in Gaza Strip now is not an eagerness to direct military action against Hamas, but rather an attempt to push civilians to seek refuge in Egypt. 

President Sisi stressed that Egypt is a sovereign state and it rejects such attempts, adding that “if necessary, I can ask the Egyptians to come out and express their rejection to the refuge idea, and then you will see millions of Egyptians are ready to demonstrate as an expression of their rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.”

President Sisi added during a joint press conference with the German Chancellor Ulf Schulz at the presidential headquarters that “Egypt rejects the military solution to the Palestinian cause or any attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinians from their land, or for this to come at the expense of the region,” pointing out that Egypt will remain in its position in support of the legitimate Palestinian right to its land.

“We do not justify any violent action against a civilian,” he added. 

“Over the past years since the peace agreement with Israel, we were keen to make this path a strategic choice, and we seek for this path to be supported by other countries,” he said. 

President Sisi reiterated Egypt’s rejection to the idea of pushing Palestinians to seek refuge in Sinai, saying “Displacing Palestinians from Gaza Strip to Sinai means transferring the conflict and the killings from Gaza to Sinai, where Sinai becomes a base for launching operations against Israel, and in this case, Israel will have the right to defend itself, so it directs its strikes to the Egyptian lands.”

He further added, “If Israel is thinking of displacement as a solution, there is the Negev desert in Israel, where they can transfer the Palestinians to until Israel finishes its announced military operation against armed groups, and then return them.”

President Sisi stated that his discussions with the German Chancellor dealt with the military confrontations between the Israeli and Palestinian sides, and the military escalation in the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of thousands of civilians on both sides, while also looking at the grave risks to civilians and the peoples of the region, as the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has begun to deteriorate. 

“The deterioration is in an unfortunate and unprecedented manner, and the continuation of the current military operations will have security and humanitarian repercussions that could get out of control. There is a danger of expanding the scope of the conflict if all international and regional parties do not unite their efforts to immediately stop the current escalation,” President Sisi added. 

President Sisi explained: “Chancellor Schulz and I discussed the Egyptian efforts to contain the crisis through our extensive contacts with both sides of the conflict and all international and regional parties over the past days, and we agreed on the necessary need to return to open new horizons for settlement in order for the region to slide into a cycle of violence, exposing the lives of civilians to further danger.”

He further stressed that Egypt has not closed Rafah Border since the beginning of the crisis, and will continue to receive humanitarian aid.