Egypt has officially refused to accept refugees from the Gaza Strip

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi officially announced on Wednesday that Egypt will not accept Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip. The statement was made at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Al-Sisi believes that radical Islamists can enter the country together with refugees. He suggested moving the refugees to the south of Israel, to the Negev desert.

Al-Sisi also said that if Egypt accepts refugees from the Gaza Strip, millions of Egyptians will take to the streets with protests. He fears that in this case, the Sinai Peninsula, which belongs to Egypt, may become “a new base for attacks on Israel.” “Egypt rejects any attempts to resolve the Palestinian issue by military methods or by forcibly removing Palestinians from their land at the expense of other countries in the region,” the president said.

Olaf Scholz, for his part, called for humanitarian aid to the civilian population of Gaza. “Palestinians are not Hamas, and Hamas does not properly speak on behalf of Palestinians,” he emphasized.

• After the attack by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip on Israeli settlements on October 7, Israel announced a complete blockade of the sector from its side. The Gaza Strip borders Israel on two sides and Egypt on the other.
• The Israeli defense forces recommended civilians in the Gaza Strip to evacuate to the south, to the Egyptian border. At the moment, at least 600,000 refugees have accumulated there. Egypt does not open the only checkpoint at Rafah on the border with Gaza and does not allow even Palestinians who have passports from other countries to leave. Also, due to the closure of the border crossing, convoys with humanitarian aid cannot enter the Gaza Strip.