A spokesperson for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has warned against what he described as “an attempt to impose further pressure on Palestinians at the border with Egypt,” stating that this leads to tension in relations with Israel.
Ahmed Abu Zeid, the spokesperson, said in a televised interview on Wednesday night on the Egyptian channel MBC Egypt that there are mechanisms to address any “violations” of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, referring to the agreement signed in 1979 that ended decades of war between the two countries.
Abu Zeid referred to the agreement with Israel as “stable over decades,” stating that there are mechanisms in place to monitor the implementation of this agreement.
For months, Egypt has been seeking to broker a ceasefire deal on its eastern borders, where Israel has been waging a war on the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of more than 34,000 people and injuring over 77,000 since it began on October 7 last year.
Cairo is hosting indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement with American and Qatari participation, but it has so far failed to halt the war.
After invading northern Gaza and then Khan Yunis, Israel is threatening a major military operation in Rafah in the southernmost part of the Strip, where it shares a border with Egypt.
Abu Zeid stated that there is “international rejection, not just Egyptian, of any military operations in Rafah,” warning that the region “cannot bear further escalation and human suffering.”
The Egyptian spokesperson accused Israel of practices in Gaza indicative of attempts to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable.
He considered that the region is facing attempts to “settle the Palestinian issue.”