CAIRO – Egypt, after months of measured condemnation of Israel over the Gaza war, has hardened its tone and formally supported an international case accusing its neighbour of genocide. Cairo and its state-aligned media have stepped up scathing criticism of Israel over the conflict raging next door, reflecting public anger in the world’s most populous Arab nation.
The two countries have also traded blame over the closure of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a crucial lifeline for aid trucks, since Israeli forces and tanks captured the Gaza side last week. But despite the war of words, analysts don’t expect a threat to the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, both US allies and recipients of billions in American aid.
Since the worst-ever Gaza war broke out with the Hamas attack of 7 October, Egypt under president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has walked a diplomatic tightrope. While condemning Israel and warning it against pushing Palestinian refugees across the border, it has also mediated in truce talks, kept its ambassador in Israel, and long helped deliver aid through Rafah.
But its patience was strained further as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed a full ground invasion of Rafah city in southern Gaza, where about 1.5 million Palestinians have been pushed against the Egyptian border. Cairo “was put in a position it didn’t want to be in, where it had to react”, said Cairo University political science professor Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid.
Last Sunday, Egypt announced it would intervene in support of South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, without however announcing details. Sayyid said the move signalled a “major shift”, with Egypt “moving from criticising Israeli policies to joining in trying to prove it is committing a genocide”.
Since Israeli forces seized the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, Egypt has refused to coordinate aid deliveries through the Gaza border point.
When Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he hoped to “persuade Egypt” to reopen the crossing, his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry shot back that Israel was “distorting the facts and disavowing its responsibility” for Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. – Nampa/AFP