The diplomatic crisis between Cairo and Jerusalem is escalating, with tensions rising due to disagreements on several key issues. Informed diplomatic sources told i24NEWS that the United States had put pressure on Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi not to withdraw his Israeli ambassador from Cairo.
According to Israeli sources, the Egyptian leader expressed his “complete distrust and disappointment” in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The tensions come as regional partners, including Egypt and Gulf states, have called on Jerusalem to offer a framework for a lasting diplomatic solution to Gaza after the conflict. However, these calls have so far been ignored by Israel, adding to the frustration of countries in the region.
The deterioration in relations is also reflected in calls by some Israeli politicians to relocate large numbers of Palestinian refugees from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula. At the same time, the Israeli military is intensifying its operations against Hamas while trying to control the buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border, the so-called Philadelphia Corridor. Israeli security experts believe that many of the ammunition, mortars and rockets used by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack entered the corridor through underground tunnels.
At a press conference last week, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Hamas continues to smuggle weapons across the Egypt-Gaza border, raising concerns about security in the region and exacerbating current diplomatic tensions.