Egypt to protect national security by all means, source says as Rafah assault continues

CAIRO – 10 May 2024: A high-level source said Egypt’s wisdom in managing the Gaza ceasefire negotiations will not stop it from protecting its national security by all means.

As reported by Extra News on Friday, the source highlighted the significant progress achieved by Egyptian efforts in the past weeks during the ceasefire negotiations.

The latest round of talks, which took place in Cairo earlier this week with the participation of mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, concluded without a truce agreement.

Points of contention between Hamas and Israel persist as Hamas insists on demanding a permanent cessation of hostilities, while Israel has rejected this demand.

Israel seeks a period of truce that includes the release of its surviving hostages from Gaza, without signaling an end to the conflict with Hamas.

The international community, including the mediators, opposes a large-scale Israeli operation in Rafah.

On Monday, Hamas accepted a ceasefire proposal put forward by Egyptian and Qatari mediators, but Israeli tanks stormed Rafah shortly after, and the Israeli government declared that the proposal did not meet its conditions.

Egypt has warned that Israel's ongoing assaults in Rafah, which began on Tuesday despite global opposition, amount to a policy of brinkmanship that hinders the goal of achieving a sustainable truce in Gaza.

As Egypt shares a border with Gaza through the city of Rafah, it strongly condemned the Israeli forces' recent takeover of the Rafah border crossing from the Gaza side. This action has blocked the main aid delivery point.

Since the war started on October 7, Cairo has cautioned against Israeli plans of reclaiming the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14 km-long buffer zone along the Egypt-Gaza border, saying this will jeopardize the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

The Israeli government denied on Wednesday that the assaults in Rafah violate the treaty.

"Israel is aware of the sensitivity of its military operation against Hamas cells near the Egyptian borders, but we reassure that this operation does not violate the peace treaty between both countries,” said Ofir Gendelman, spokesperson of the Israeli government.

While the United States has expressed discontent over the current Israeli attacks in Rafah, it categorizes the operations as limited and not constituting a full-scale offensive.

Nonetheless, the US decided to suspend a significant bomb shipment to Israel over concerns regarding the Rafah offensive.

Displaced #Palestinians continue to flee #Rafah 🆘‼️#Rafah_under_attack #universityprotests #UnitedSatans #MIT #ASU

Video link provided below:https://t.co/IpHi7A2AwC via @YouTube pic.twitter.com/fZrU2WezUR

— Mohamed Ferhaoui محمد فرحاوي (@MohamedFeTR) May 10, 2024

Israel has called for tens of thousands of people in eastern Rafah, a city currently populated by 1.4 million Palestinians including 600,000 children, the majority of whom are displaced by the war, to evacuate their homes.

The intense Israeli bombardment in and around Rafah since Monday has forced about 80,000 people to flee the city, according to reports from UN humanitarian agencies on Thursday.

The attacks by Israel in Rafah have resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians, adding to the already staggering toll of over 35,000 killed and more than 78,000 injured since the conflict began.