Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (right) and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (French)
“Egypt is largely responsible for what happened on October 7th.” “The peace treaty between Egypt and Israel is here to stay.” Two phrases sum up a controversy that suddenly escalated today, Monday, between Israel and Egypt against the backdrop of what is happening in the Gaza Strip, specifically in the city of Rafah, close to the border with Egypt.
The beginning was with the extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who criticized the Egyptian position strongly opposing Israel's intention to launch a large-scale ground operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Smotrich, who was speaking at a meeting of the parliamentary bloc of the Religious Zionism Party headed by him, said, according to what was reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, that Egypt is largely responsible for what happened on October 7, in reference to the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, and that Hamas was armed through them.
Smotrich called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ignore American pressure and not send an Israeli delegation to Cairo tomorrow in order to complete the talks in which Egypt, Qatar and the United States are participating regarding reaching a prisoner exchange deal. He added that the most appropriate solution for returning Israeli prisoners is to continue the military operation.
Normal relationships
On the other hand, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said, during a press conference with his Slovenian counterpart Tanja Vajon, in the capital, Ljubljana, on Monday evening, that his country continues to implement the “peace agreement” and normal relations with Israel.
In the past two days, Cairo has warned of the escalation of events in Rafah, stressing that they portend a deterioration in the situation in the Gaza Strip, with dire repercussions, with Israel threatening to launch a military operation in the city adjacent to the Egyptian border.
American media outlets, including the Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times, published on Saturday that Cairo warned of the possibility of suspending the peace treaty if Israel sent forces to Palestinian Rafah, which is adjacent to the Egyptian border. The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted the same warning from the Wall Street Journal.
But the Egyptian Foreign Minister responded to a journalist’s question in this regard, saying: “Let me be clear, I do not have many comments regarding those sources that speak in the media about this matter... Over the past 40 years there have been normal relations (with Israel), and we will continue.” “In doing more, as a kind of way to address this matter (the Gaza war).”
Shukry continued: There is a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which has been in effect for the past 40 years, and we deal with confidence and effectiveness, and we will continue to do so in this era, and any comments made by some individuals may have distorted the matter.
In turn, the Israeli Kan channel quoted Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry as saying that the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel is here to stay.
It is noteworthy that Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in Washington on March 26, 1979, following the Camp David Accords that was signed between the two sides in 1978, and its most prominent provisions include stopping the state of war, normalizing relations, and Israel’s complete withdrawal of its armed forces and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula, and keeping the area devoid of Weapon.
For days, Rafah has witnessed an escalation of attacks by the Israeli occupation army, which launched violent raids that claimed the lives of dozens of martyrs and wounded, in clear Israeli disregard for international warnings about the humanitarian consequences of military action towards the city, which is crowded with displaced people.
For 129 days, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving as of Monday 28,340 martyrs and 67,984 injured, most of them children and women, in addition to thousands missing under the rubble, according to Palestinian and UN data, which led to Israel being put on trial for genocide for the first time. Since its establishment.
Source: Al Jazeera + agencies