![Teams put out a fire that broke out among the rubble of destroyed building as search and rescue operations continue after an Israeli attack hits en-Neccar family apartment in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 04, 2023 [Mustafa Hassona - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/AA-20231104-32644829-32644817-ISRAELI_ATTACKS_ON_GAZA_CONTINUE.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Israel has been quietly trying to rally international support to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt for the duration of the war, according to six senior foreign diplomats who spoke to the New York Times.
Israeli leaders and diplomats have privately proposed the idea to several foreign governments, framing it as a humanitarian initiative that would allow Palestinians in Gaza to escape temporarily from the dangers of war and seek refuge in the Sinai Peninsula in neighbouring Egypt. Israel’s idea has been rejected by most countries it has approached, including the US and UK, due to the fear that the mass population displacement will become permanent.
Foreign diplomats said that countries which heard about the Israeli idea fear that such a step would destabilise Egypt and leave a large number of Palestinians outside their homeland. The Palestinians themselves also rejected the idea, fearing that Israel would use the war to permanently displace more than two million people living in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the article.
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A few days after the surprise Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, the Israeli army called on about half of the population of the Gaza Strip to evacuate to the south of Gaza. However, the government in Tel Aviv did not openly announce its desire for the Palestinians to leave to go to Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing, which has been closed for most of the time since the outbreak of the war. Egypt itself rejected the idea of temporarily uprooting Palestinians from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula, let alone making it a permanent situation.
An Egyptian government spokesman declined to comment on the New York Times article, referring to President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s speech last month, in which he rejected the idea of accepting Palestinian refugees in Egypt.
“Egypt rejects the liquidation of the Palestinian issue through military means, or any attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinians from their land, or for this to happen at the expense of countries in the region,” said Al-Sisi. “I affirm, in this regard, that Egypt is adamant in its unequivocal position in support of the legitimate Palestinian right to their land and in support of the struggle of the Palestinian people.”
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