CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that he would not allow any mass influx of refugees from Gaza because it would set a precedent for the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan.
After meeting with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Sisi blamed Israel’s air strikes on the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza for the failure to get aid to the territory’s 2.4 million people, AFP news agency reported.
Sisi warned that the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt means the same displacement will take place for Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan.
Subsequently, the Palestinian state that all are talking about will become impossible to implement because the land is there, but the people are not, he said.
Sisi’s meeting with the German leader came as Gaza faced a 12th straight day of deadly Israeli bombardment.
Casualties in Gaza
At least three thousand innocent Palestinian people have been martyred in Gaza, which is nearly out of food, water, electricity, and fuel.
Pressure has intensified for aid to be allowed in through Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza, the only crossing to the besieged territory.
Sisi said that Cairo did not close the crossing, but that developments on the ground and the continuous bombings by Israel of the Palestinian side of the crossing have prevented its operation.
Hundreds of trucks carrying aid have been waiting for six days on the Egyptian side of the crossing, which Israeli planes have bombed four times.
