Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Cairo was working to bring viewpoints closer and establish a framework for a truce agreement in Gaza. He stressed his country’s rejection of any liquidation of the Palestinian issue.
Shoukry said that any Israeli military operation in Rafah would be risky, as there was an accumulation of Palestinians in a limited space, and that expanding the Israeli military operation would have dire consequences. He warned “against any additional escalation.”
Egyptian authorities told the Wall Street Journal that Egypt had recently redeployed dozens of M60A3 Patton main battle tanks and YPR-765 infantry fighting vehicles near the Rafah border crossing.
Egyptian sources said a delegation from Egypt visited Tel Aviv on Friday to discuss the situation in Rafah with Israeli officials. They said Egyptian officials opposed Israeli attempts to persuade them to cooperate in some way with the ground invasion.
The latest actions followed threats Egyptian authorities conveyed to their Israeli counterparts, stating that any ground operation in Rafah would result in an instant suspension of the peace deal between the two nations.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli threats to storm Rafah in the strongest terms, and warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Rafah, which had become a haven for hundreds of thousands of displaced people.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said the Israeli aggression on the Strip had killed 28,64 people and injured 67,611 since 7 Octobet. It said the occupation had committed 16 massacres in the past 24 hours, killing 117 and injuring 152.
The government media office in Gaza warned of a catastrophe and massacre that could kill and wound tens of thousands if Israel invaded Rafah Governorate, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians live, including 1.3 million displaced from other areas. It held the US administration, the international community, and the Israeli occupation fully responsible.
“The Israeli occupation media reported the intention and threats of the occupation army to attack and invade Rafah Governorate (south of the Gaza Strip), which portends a global catastrophe and massacre that may leave tens of thousands dead and wounded,” the statement read.
The media office urged the UN Security Council to convene immediately and urgently, and to decide to make the Israeli occupation stop the genocidal war it is waging against civilians, children and women in the Gaza Strip, as well as the deliberate killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, and the occupation’s continuing threats against Rafah and other governorates.
