Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi on Thursday rejected the expulsion of Palestinians from the neighboring Gaza Strip as Israel prepares for an upcoming military operation in Rafah.
Cairo fears that a planned advance on the southern border town of Rafah, the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Gaza after months of Israeli attacks in the north and central coastal strip, would trigger a mass exodus to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
“Egypt took a clear stance from the first minute [of the war] “I completely reject the forced migration of Palestinians from their land to Sinai or any other place in order to save the Palestinian cause from liquidation and protect Egypt’s national security,” al-Sissi said in a televised address.
The Israeli offensive on Rafah will have “catastrophic consequences” for the humanitarian situation in Gaza and for peace and security in the region, according to a statement from the Egyptian president.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, but Israel’s military operation in Gaza has inflamed popular sentiment in the world’s largest Arab country.
Rafah is the last holdout for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fleeing the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, sparked by the militants’ Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel that killed over 1,200 people. Since then, nearly 35,000 Palestinians have died.
According to an Israeli media report, tens of thousands of people have already left Rafah in advance of the impending Israeli offensive.
Some 150,000 to 200,000 Palestinian civilians have left Rafah since April 7, the Jerusalem Post reported Thursday, citing the army.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment.
An Israeli military operation in Rafah, which lies in the far south of the Gaza Strip and borders Egypt, will worsen the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, according to aid groups.
But Israeli radio station Kan reported Thursday that the Jewish state is taking precautions to limit the loss of life after widespread Western pressure.
The attack begins with an evacuation of civilians that could last up to five weeks. In this first phase of the ground operation, civilians in Rafah will be relocated to safer locations, the report said.
Kan reported that Hamas is making its own preparations for a showdown in Rafah, providing fighters with provisions and weapons.
Israel’s allies and critics have been calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for months to call off the invasion of Rafah, fearing mass civilian casualties.
More than a million displaced Palestinians from other parts of the Gaza Strip have found refuge there. Rafah is also the location of the main crossing through which aid supplies enter the area.
Despite the pressure being exerted on Israel, the government argues that it must continue with the ground operation to achieve its goal of dismantling Hamas.
Israeli officials say the Islamists still have several battalions left in Rafah that need to be eliminated to prevent Hamas from regrouping and attacking again.
Israel also believes that some of the hostages kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas massacres in southern Israel are being held in Rafah.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Israel is planning a phased approach to limit civilian casualties, but gave a slightly different time frame. It said Israel expected two to three weeks of evacuations and a six-week military offensive.
It is believed that Israel intends to move the Palestinians to makeshift tent camps in the southern Gaza Strip, such as Al-Mawasi camp on the Mediterranean coast. Aid groups say it is difficult to care for so many people in one place.
Israel’s Kan radio reported that the security cabinet was to be briefed on Thursday on preparations for the Rafah operation and the status of indirect negotiations with Hamas that would allow the release of more hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The United States, Germany and 16 other countries called on Hamas to immediately release all hostages held for more than 200 days.
During its attack on Israel on October 7, Hamas, along with other Islamist terrorist groups, took over 200 people hostage.
“We demand the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for over 200 days. This also includes our own citizens. The fate of the hostages and civilians in Gaza, protected under international law, is of international importance,” said a joint statement from the 18 countries.
“We emphasize that the present agreement to release the hostages would lead to an immediate and extended ceasefire in Gaza, enabling a flood of additional necessary humanitarian assistance across Gaza and leading to a credible end to hostilities.”