Israel is deliberately avoiding ceasefire efforts as it focuses on a military solution to Hamas in Gaza and is levering control of the Rafah crossing to strengthen its hold on the enclave, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said at the 33rd Arab Summit in Bahrain on Thursday.
“Israel continues to engage in evasive actions to shirk its responsibilities and in devious maneuvering around efforts to achieve a ceasefire,” he said.
“Furthermore, it is defiantly adamant about its widely condemned military operation in Rafah, and seeks to leverage the Rafah crossing, from the Palestinian side, to solidify its siege on the Gaza Strip.”
Egypt along with Qatar, have been the main mediators for a hostage deal to release the remaining 132 hostages which has come to a standstill.
Military operation in Rafah is an important pressure lever to sway Hamas
Israel has insisted that its military operation in Rafah is an important pressure lever to sway Hamas to make a deal and a necessary step to ending the war by destroying Hamas.
The military operation, which began last week, has sparked tensions with Cairo, particularly its seizure from Hamas of the crossing between Israel and Gaza.
Egypt has condemned the Israeli seizure of the crossing and closed the passageway to goods on its side. It has also expressed alarm at the possibility that Palestinians in Gaza could flee across its border with the coastal enclave.
He accused Israel of making Gaza uninhabitable.
“Egypt is unequivocally committed to its steadfast position, both in words and actions, in rejecting [Israel’s] liquidation of the Palestinian cause, the forced displacement or compulsory migration of the Palestinians, as well as the creation of conditions rendering Gaza uninhabitable, to evacuate the land of Palestine from its people,” he said.
“Justice is indivisible, and the lives of the Palestinian people are as precious as those of any other,” Sisi said.
It’s a mistake, he said, to imagine that the solution to Hamas in Gaza is a military one.
“I reiterate that those who believe that security and military solutions guarantee their interests or peace are deluded; similarly, those who think that brinkmanship yields benefits or gains are demonstrably mistaken.
“The fate of the region and its peoples’ resources are far too significant to be entrusted to warmongers or advocates of zero-sum games,” he said.
He alluded to Egypt’s role as the first Arab country to make peace with Israel in 1979, explaining that his country had “illuminated the torch of peace in the region in times of immense darkness, enduring high costs and bearing heavy burdens.
“Let us bring an immediate end to this outrageous war against the Palestinians, who deserve to regain their legitimate rights in the establishment of their independent state, along the June 4, 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital,” he stated.
“All future generations of Palestinians and Israelis deserve to live in a region where justice thrives, peace prevails, and security reigns; they are entitled to live in a region where the hopes of the future sublimate the pain of the past,” Sisi said.