At a meeting on Sunday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Israel’s activities in Gaza had “exceeded” his right to self-defense and had become a collective punishment.
Sissi, whose country has a narrow border with the Gaza Strip that has remained largely blockaded over the past week, said during the meeting that Israel’s “response went beyond the right to self-defense and expressed itself in collective punishment for 2.3 million people in Gaza.” .” “according to Egyptian state media.
Blinken, who visited Israel on Thursday before traveling to Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, was due to speak on Monday as part of his diplomatic blitz related to the Israel-Gaza war meeting return to Israel.
Sissi also used his meeting with Blinken to falsely claim that Egypt never persecuted its now-defunct Jewish minority.
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“You said you are a Jewish person,” Sissi told Blinken in front of reporters. “I am an Egyptian who grew up alongside Jews in Egypt. They have never been subjected to any form of oppression or targeted persecution and there have never been any cases of Jews being targeted in our region.”
Egypt’s millennia-old Jewish community numbered around 80,000 people in the 1940s; today there are fewer than 20 people. The departure of Egyptian Jews was spurred by increasing nationalist sentiment after the creation of Israel in 1948 and during the Arab-Israeli wars, harassment and some outright expulsions by then-Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo on Sunday, October 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
The U.S. State Department’s readout of the Blinken-Sissi meeting said the two “agreed on the importance of addressing the humanitarian situation in Gaza to ensure that assistance can reach the people who need it.” , and to protect civilians from danger.”
Blinken also emphasized that the US is focused on preventing the spread of the conflict and facilitating the safe exit of American citizens and their family members from Gaza.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday that the US has so far failed to get American citizens out of Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza.
“It was difficult to carry out this operation to help them escape… This is the highest priority,” he said, admitting: “I am not aware of anyone else being able to escape at this time.”
A picture taken on October 10, 2023 shows the closed gates of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. (SAYS KHATIB / AFP)
Egypt also said on Sunday that it planned to host a summit on “the future of the Palestinian cause.” According to his spokesman, Sissi held a meeting of the National Security Council on Sunday on the topic of “military escalation in Gaza”.
His government has pushed for diplomatic efforts with allies and humanitarian groups to “de-escalate” the conflict and “deliver the necessary aid” – much of which is piling up in Egypt, awaiting the opportunity to reach Gaza.
The Egyptian council meeting on Sunday reiterated Sissi’s previous statements in which he “rejected and denounced the policy of expulsion or attempts to eradicate the Palestinian cause at the expense of neighboring countries.”
In the eight days since Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,300 Israelis in a surprise attack, Israel responded with an intense bombing campaign that claimed over 2,300 lives in Gaza and was reportedly aimed at destroying Hamas leadership and infrastructure.
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, seen from southern Israel, October 15, 2023 (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israel has warned more than a million residents of the northern Gaza Strip to flee to the south of the territory before ground battles break out in and around Gaza City.
Cairo, historically a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, is facing increasing pressure to allow fleeing Palestinians to enter Egypt.
In a television interview with Al Jazeera, Danny Ayalon, Israel’s former deputy foreign minister and ambassador to the US, said Cairo must “play along” and allow “temporary” settlements in the “almost endless space” in the Sinai, a vast desert region.
Ayalon said Israel and the international community could prepare infrastructure, including “tent cities,” to accommodate the refugees, an idea Cairo strongly rejects. The relocation of large numbers of Gazans to Egypt is unpopular in the North African country, which is concerned about both the security and economic impact of such a move.
“Egypt’s national security is a red line and there will be no complacency in protecting it,” Cairo’s National Security Council said on Sunday.