Egypt's ‘warning’ expression to Israel on Rafah is ‘a first in four decades’, SIS Head

CAIRO – 23 April 2024: Head of the State Information Service [SIS] Diaa Rashwan said that Egypt didn’t use the ‘warning’ expression with Israel in nearly four decades; however, Egypt’s political leadership used the expression lately out of its awareness of the seriousness of any invasion to Rafah, whether for the people in Gaza, the Palestinian cause, or the regional stability.

Rashwan added, in televised statements to al Qahera news Channel, that President Abdel Fattah al Sisi used this expression at least three times during the past two weeks, in public meetings and with senior officials.

“There are real dangers, and this crazy cycle of violence, must be stopped.” Rashwan said.

Rashwan confirmed that all countries of the world have refused Israel’s invasion plans to the Palestinian Rafah. “The United States of America even repeated this refusal several times, through its president, its foreign minister, and its senior officials,” Rashwan said.

Rashwan added that he thinks the whole Israeli stance is ‘mainly a search for a false victory’, especially after the recent escalations with Iran.

He pointed out that Israel has not achieved anything, and is trying to falsify ‘an imaginary victory’ to present to the Israeli people.

Rashwan confirmed, on Tuesday, that Egypt has never discussed any plans with the Israeli side of a ground invasion to Rafah city, denying what was mentioned in report published in one of the U.S. newspapers on this matter.

He stressed Egypt’s ‘firm and well-known’ stance of its complete rejection of any plans for a ground invasion to Rafah, ‘which will lead to massacres, heavy human losses, and widespread destruction’.

This, on the top of “what the brotherly Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip has been suffering from during the past 200 days of Israel’s bloody aggression”, Rashwan said.

Egypt's repeated warnings had reached the Israeli side - from all channels – according to Rashwan. He noted that Egypt’s warning and rejection was announced from the very first moment the idea was proposed by the Israeli side, due to the expected huge losses, and the extremely negative repercussions that would follow on the stability of the entire region.