Egypt refused Israel’s request to open the Egyptian borders to Gaza residents, Reuters reported on Wednesday. This came in line with Cairo’s firm stance against Israeli attempts to displace Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Senior Israeli officials expressed their concern about the worsening deterioration of relations with Egypt against the backdrop of the continuation of the war in the Gaza Strip, the collapse of the truce deal talks between Israel and Hamas through mediators, and the Egyptian refusal to transfer humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip as long as Israel controls the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, amid Israeli allegations that Egypt is exploiting the aid issue to try to increase international pressure on Tel Aviv.
On Wednesday, the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz reported warnings from unnamed senior Israeli officials that Egypt may withdraw from mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement to release Israeli detainees in the Gaza Strip, indicating that security and intelligence cooperation between the two sides will be harmed if the crisis continues. One of them said, describing relations with Egypt, “The situation with Egypt now is the worst since the beginning of the war.”
Moreover, the European Union called on Israel on Wednesday to end its military operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip “immediately,” warning that failure to do so would undermine relations with the bloc. A statement issued by EU foreign policy coordinator Josep Borrell on behalf of the bloc said: “If Israel continues its military operation in Rafah, this will inevitably put severe pressure on the European Union’s relationship with Israel.”
Also on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the Israeli occupation committed five massacres against civilians during the past 24 hours, leaving 60 deaths and 80 injured, noting that the toll of the Israeli aggression has risen to 35,233 deaths and 79,141 injured since October 7.
On the ground, the Israeli occupation army revealed that 23 of its soldiers were injured in the battles in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours.
For its part, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Hamas movement, announced the implementation of a complex operation in the Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, which led to the killing of at least 12 Israeli soldiers.
It said in a statement that its fighters targeted a D9 military bulldozer with an Al-Yassin 105 shell, and a force barricaded inside a house with two anti-personnel shells and clashed with it, before detonating a stun device in a Merkava tank that came to the aid of the force, noting that the occupation aircraft began a barbaric bombing operation in the area after an attempt to withdraw the equipment of the targeted force.
In a previous statement, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced that its fighters were able to drop an anti-personnel missile via a drone on a group of occupation soldiers east of the Jabalia camp.
