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RAFA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Egypt is threatening to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if Israeli troops are sent to the densely populated Gaza border city of Rafah, where it fears the fighting could lead to a major uprising in the region’s main border. The aid supply route may have to be closed. two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat said on Sunday.
The threat to suspend the Camp David accords, a cornerstone of regional stability for nearly half a century, came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said sending troops into Rafah was essential to victory. four months war Against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He said Hamas still had four battalions there.
More than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has fled to Rafah to escape fighting in other areas, and they are packed into huge tent camps and UN-run shelters near the border. Egypt fears mass influx of millions of Palestinian refugees who can never be allowed to return,
Netanyahu told “Fox News Sunday” that “there is plenty of room north of Rafah for them to go” following Israeli attacks elsewhere in Gaza, and said Israel was “promoting evacuations with flyers, cellphones and safe corridors and other things.” Will give instructions.”
The standoff between Israel and Egypt, two of America’s closest allies, came as aid groups warned that the offensive in Rafah would worsen the devastating humanitarian situation in Gaza, where about 80% of residents have fled their homes and where the U.N. have to say One fourth of the population is facing starvation,
A ground operation in Rafah could close one of the only routes to Gaza There is a desperate need for food and medical supplies,
Hamas’s al-Aqsa television station quoted an unidentified Hamas official as saying that any attack on Rafah would be “detonated”. Talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar Its objective was to achieve a ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Netanyahu were expected to speak later Sunday, according to two administration officials with knowledge of the call, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the presidents’ private discussions. Biden last week called for an Israeli military response to Gaza “At the top.”
Where will the citizens go?
The three officials confirmed Egypt’s threats on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists on sensitive negotiations. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries have also warned Serious Results If Israel goes to Rafah.
“The Israeli attack on Rafah would lead to an untold humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wrote on Twitter.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that forced displacement is a war crime and that civilians who do not evacuate are still protected by international humanitarian law. “There is nowhere safe to go in Gaza,” said Nadia Hardman, a refugee and migrant rights researcher.
The White House, which is throw weapons towards israel and defended it against international calls for a ceasefire, as well as warned against the Rafah ground operation under current circumstances, saying it would be a “disaster” for civilians.
Israel and Egypt fought five wars before signing the Camp David Accords, a landmark peace treaty brokered by then-US President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. The treaty contains several provisions governing the deployment of forces on both sides of the border.
Egypt has heavily fortified its border with Gaza, creating a 5-kilometre (3 mi) buffer zone and erecting concrete walls above and below ground. It has denied Israeli allegations that Hamas operates smuggling tunnels under the border, saying the Egyptian military has full control over them.
Egyptian officials fear that if the border is breached, the army will be unable to stem the tide of people fleeing to the Sinai Peninsula.
The UN says Rafah, normally home to fewer than 300,000 people, now hosts 1.4 million Even more who fled fighting elsewhere, and it is “overcrowded”.
Inside Rafah, some displaced people regrouped. Rafat and Faida Abu Haloub, who fled Beit Lahiya in the north at the beginning of the war, put their belongings in the back of a truck. “We don’t know where we can take him safely,” Feda said of her child. “Every month we have to move forward, and with all the fear and missiles.”
Om Mohammed al-Gemri said an Israeli ground offensive on Rafah could force Palestinians in Gaza to flee to Egypt, and he hoped the Egyptians would “open the borders and let us escape to the Sinai.”
112 bodies taken to Gaza hospitals in one day
Israel has ordered most of Gaza’s population to flee to the south, ordering the evacuation of two-thirds of the territory, while it continues to carry out regular airstrikes across areas, including Rafah. Dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed in air strikes on the city in recent days.
caused by Israel’s invasion mass destructionHeavy fighting continues, particularly in northern Gaza, and in central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Yunis. In Gaza City on Sunday, remaining residents covered decomposing bodies in the streets or carried bodies to graves. Some roads were left with heaps of sand due to the bombing.
Gaza Ministry of Health It said on Sunday that the bodies of 112 people killed across the region in the past 24 hours had been brought to hospitals, as well as 173 injured people. The death toll in this strip since the beginning of the war reached 28,176. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says most of those killed were women and children.
the war started from Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, when Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted about 250. More than 100 hostages were released in November during a week-long ceasefire in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Some of the remaining hostages have died.
Hamas has said it will not make any releases until Israel ends its offensive and withdraws from Gaza. It has also demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including senior militants serving life sentences.
Netanyahu has rejected both demands and said Israel would continue fighting until “complete victory” and the return of all hostages.
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Magee reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.
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Find more about AP’s coverage here https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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