(DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA) — Israel is reported to have proposed that a significant portion of Egypt’s foreign debt through the World Bank be forgiven if the government led by President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi allows the entry (expulsion) of Palestinian residents from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing.
This proposal to the Egyptian government was reported by an influential Israeli website.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also reported to have pressured several European countries to exert pressure on Egypt to agree to his proposal to allow the entry (or expulsion) of Palestinian residents from Gaza.
Egypt is currently facing a debt crisis, with the country ranking just behind Ukraine in the list of nations likely to be unable to repay their foreign debts in the near future.
The financial position of the Arab country is extremely weak at this time, and Cairo needs loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and wealthy Gulf Arab countries to finance its economy.
Since the onset of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian government has repeatedly stated its stance of not allowing the entry of Palestinian residents from the Gaza Strip, even temporarily, while Israel conducts military operations in the region.
Despite facing increasing pressure from Western countries to open the Rafah border to Palestinian entry, President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi remains reluctant to do so.
He has stated that Egypt rejects all efforts to “kill the Palestinian issue, either militarily or through the forced expulsion of Palestinian residents from their homeland, which would also affect regional countries.”
Much of Egypt’s and regional Arab countries’ reluctance to the proposal to allow the opening of the Rafah border to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip stems from the memory of the 1948 Nakba events.
During the 1948 Nakba, Zionist militants forcibly expelled over 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland in Palestine and prevented them and their descendants from returning.
The 1948 Nakba events saw Zionist militants erase the existence of over 500 Palestinian villages and turned 80% of the original Palestinian territory into Israel.
This event is also characterized as an ethnic cleansing effort against the Palestinian population.
Egypt and regional Arab countries are concerned that if the Rafah border is opened for the entry of Palestinian residents, Israel will forcibly expel them from the Gaza Strip to be placed temporarily in the Sinai desert, without allowing them to return to their homeland even after the conflict ends.
This would echo the 1948 Nakba events.
Currently, the Egyptian government has opened the Rafah border for the entry of humanitarian aid to address the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s severe aerial attacks. — DSA
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