CAIRO/GAZA
Egypt is moving to avert a
mass exodus from the Gaza Strip into its Sinai Peninsula, as Israeli
bombardment halted crossings at the main exit point from the Palestinian
enclave on Tuesday, Gaza officials and Egyptian security sources said.Palestinians flee their homes amid Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip October 10, 2023.
Israel's assault on Gaza has
caused alarm in Egypt, which has urged Israel to provide safe passage for
civilians from the enclave rather than encouraging them to flee southwest
towards Sinai, two Egyptian security sources said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi said on Tuesday that the escalation in Gaza was "highly
dangerous" and that Egypt was pursuing a negotiated solution to the
violence with regional and international partners.
Egypt would not allow the
issue to be settled at the expense of others, Sisi said in comments reported by
state news agency MENA, an apparent reference to the risk that Palestinians
could be pushed into Sinai.
The Rafah border crossing
remained shut on Wednesday morning, after Egyptian military planes conducted
flights nearby overnight, security sources said. The military has also taken up
new positions close to the border, running patrols to monitor the area, said
Ahmed Salem of the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights.
Rafah is the sole possible
crossing point into Sinai for Gaza's 2.3 million residents. The rest of the
densely populated strip is surrounded by the sea, and by Israel, which has
announced a total siege of Gaza and could launch a ground offensive.
The passage of people and
goods in and out of Gaza is strictly controlled under a blockade enforced by
Egypt and Israel.
On Tuesday, the Israeli
military revised a recommendation by one of its spokespeople that Palestinians
fleeing its air strikes in Gaza head to Egypt.
Israel has been pounding Gaza
with the fiercest strikes in the 75-year history of its conflict with the
Palestinians since Hamas launched a deadly incursion into Israel on Saturday.
Egypt, the first Arab country
to make peace with Israel, has mediated between Israel and Palestinian factions
during previous conflicts in Gaza and has pressed to prevent further escalation
in the current fighting.
Gaza's Hamas-run Interior
Ministry said bombardments on both Monday and Tuesday had hit an entry gate on
the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing. The crossing was also closed from
the Egyptian side and Palestinians planning to travel to Gaza retreated to
north Sinai's main city of Al Arish, Egyptian sources said.
On Monday, about 800 people
left Gaza through the Rafah crossing and about 500 people entered, though the
crossing was closed for the movement of goods, according to the United Nations
humanitarian office.
North Sinai's governor met
local authorities on Monday to plan for any crises resulting from events in
Gaza, his office said, and ambulances have been mobilized in Sinai for possible
evacuations from Gaza. So far, there has been no sign of mass gatherings of
Palestinians at the Rafah crossing, with only scheduled departures proceeding
until Tuesday.
In 2008, tens of thousands of
Palestinians crossed into Sinai after Hamas blasted holes in a border wall.
Security in the area around
Rafah is also of concern to Egypt because Sinai has been the site of an
Islamist insurgency that flared a decade ago. Hamas, which has run the Gaza
Strip since 2007, shares the Islamist ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, a
movement outlawed in Egypt.
Egypt's military has in recent
years largely asserted its control over northern Sinai, facing sporadic attacks
there.
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