Israel’s plan to push Palestinians out of Gaza puts Egypt in a ‘very delicate situation’
Israel’s plan since the outset of the war has been to push Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, Luciano Zaccara, a Middle East political analyst, has told Al Jazeera.
“What they want to do is to eliminate people, to get rid of the people, all the Palestinians they can from the Gaza Strip, with this idea that they can do it voluntarily,” he said, adding there is nothing voluntary about the move as Israel is pushing Palestinians into “concentration camps in the south”.
“Every time they go to search for food or whatever, they are also killed. So if you are given the opportunity to escape and run for your life, you will do it.”
Israel’s plan puts Egypt in a “very delicate situation in which, for humanitarian reasons, they should open the gate, because otherwise people will be eliminated physically at the border, but politically speaking, it’s something that Egypt doesn’t want to do”, Zaccara said.
Egypt says Israel’s description of Palestinians’ displacement as voluntary is ‘nonsense’
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty says Israel’s description of the forced displacement of Palestinians as voluntary is “nonsense”.
On Friday, Netanyahu claimed there were “different plans for how to rebuild Gaza” and alleged that “half of the population wants to leave Gaza”, claiming it was “not a mass expulsion”.
“I can open Rafah for them, but it will be closed immediately by Egypt,” he said.
In response, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it reiterated its “categorical rejection of forcibly or coercively displacing Palestinians from their land”.
“[Egypt] stresses that these practices represent a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and amount to war crimes that cannot be tolerated,” the ministry added.
The statement affirmed that Egypt will never be complicit in such practices nor act as a conduit for Palestinian displacement, describing this as a “red line” that cannot be crossed.
Unpacking Israel’s plan to forcibly displace Palestinians
The destruction of Gaza City and Israel’s war of words with Egypt are all signs that Israel is moving ahead with its plan to annex the Gaza Strip with as few Palestinians in it as possible, regional analyst Luciano Zaccara has said.
“It is clear that Israel is not interested in having [Gaza City] remain a city that can be used to declare a Palestinian state,” he told Al Jazeera.
“The goal is now to blame Egypt for not allowing people to [cross the border],” he said, underscoring the irony in Netanyahu’s claim that Palestinians have a basic human right to choose where to live – besides Gaza.
“Claiming that this [displacement] can be done voluntarily is also a joke, because Palestinians are not going to the south because they want to, but because they are being removed forcibly,” the analyst added.
“They will be [forced] to cross the border, and this is the problem we are going to face. It’s going to happen.”
