Back ethnic cleansing in Gaza, Netanyahu urges Europeans:Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lobbying Western leaders to put pressure on Egypt to resettle displaced Palestinian refugees in the Sinai, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Sources told the newspaper that Netanyahu last week held meetings with EU officials in a bid to build support for the plan ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday.

Remember: Israel has already displaced 1.4 mn civilians in Gaza, stoking fears in Cairo that it would try and drive them over the border into the Sinai. The IDF has ordered residents of Gaza City in the north to evacuate and move south due to its ground offensive.

Key countries have rejected the idea: Germany, France and the UK all rebuffed Netanyahu’s proposal as unrealistic due to Egypt’s vocal opposition. “Netanyahu pushed quite hard that the solution was for Egyptians to take Gazans at least during the conflict,” one western diplomat told the FT. “But we didn’t take it very seriously because the Egyptian position is and has always been very clear and they just won’t do it.” The US has also rejected the idea, with President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken both publicly stating their opposition.

It did find favor in some quarters: According to the FT, both Austria and the Czech Republic have been supportive of the idea, and some officials want to ramp up the pressure on Egypt. “Now the time is to put increased pressure on the Egyptians to agree,” the paper quoted one source as saying. Czechia’s top diplomat Jan Lipavsky yesterday called Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry to discuss Gaza, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The EU and Egypt are in discussions about treating injured Palestinians across the border, according to the paper. “The Turks [have] offered to establish a field hospital if necessary. We’re not planning to move field hospitals to [north Sinai] but offering to provide technical support to strengthen a referral pathway from Gaza to Egypt,” it quotes one official as saying. “[The Egyptians] established a triage facility at Rafah, and we’re still in discussions about that.”

Remember: The discussions come as the EU accelerates talks with Egypt over an economic support package aimed at preventing refugees from entering Europe. Under discussions reported by the FT earlier this month, the bloc wants to provide money to support job creation and the green transition rather than pay Egypt to keep migrants within its borders.

ISRAEL HAS A ROADMAP-

Israel’s Intelligence Ministry has drawn up a plan for forcibly transferring the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 mn population to the Sinai peninsula, according to a report picked up by the Associated Press. The document, dated six days after the Hamas attack on 7 October, recommended displacement as the best of three options available “to effect a significant change in the civilian reality” in Gaza.

Under the plans: All 2.3 mn people would be forced to live in tents in the Sinai while new cities are constructed and a “humanitarian corridor” is set up. Israel would set up a security zone to block them from reentering Gaza.

This is a red line for Egypt: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has repeatedly warned that Egypt will not tolerate any attempt to displace Gaza’s population into the Sinai.

Netanyahu played down the report: The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the report a mere “concept paper” and denied that discussions have been had with security agencies.

But Israeli officials haven’t exactly been guarded about the plans: “There is a huge expanse, almost endless space in the Sinai desert,” senior Israeli diplomat and former deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, said in an interview earlier this month. “The idea is for [the Palestinians] to leave over for the open areas where we, and the international community, will prepare the infrastructure, tent cities, with food and water … Egypt will have to play ball.”

A PLEA FOR A CEASEFIRE-

Leaders of charities and NGOs pleaded with world leaders to enforce a ceasefire in Gazayesterday to alleviate the humanitarian crisis. “An entire population is being dehumanized,” the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) Phillipe Lazzarini told the UN Security Council at an emergency session called by the UAE. Lazzarini, as well as the head of Unicef and a senior official at the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, described the “catastrophic” situation on the ground, where hundreds of children are dying every day, clean water and medical supplies are running desperately low, and looting at UN food warehouses threatens to make it “impossible” to distribute aid.

The numbers coming out of Gaza are shocking:

  • “Grave violations of epic proportions”: Israel has killed more children in three weeks than died in an entire year across all the world’s conflict zones since 2019. (Save the Children).
  • One every 10 minutes: One child is dying in Israeli airstrikes every 10 minutes, the country director of Save the Children Palestine said yesterday. (BBC)
  • And 350 people every day: Some 8,260 Gazans have been killed by Israel in just 24 days. (Palestinian Health Ministry)
  • 116 medical workers have been killed in the violence and 57 healthcare facilities have been targeted. (Gaza Health Ministry)

The responses from world leaders:

  • No ceasefire, says US: “We do not believe that a ceasefire is the right answer right now,” White House spokesperson John Kirby said yesterday. Speaking at the Security Council, the US’ ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that world leaders “must do everything possible” to save lives — except for ending the fighting, which she again refused to support.
  • Security Council ignoring the majority of the world, says UAE: Friday’s vote at the UN General Assembly is an “unambiguous call” for an immediate ceasefire which the Security Council must respect, said the UAE’s UN ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh.
  • Humanitarian “pauses” not enough, says Russia: Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that Israel is inflicting a crisis of “biblical proportions” on Gaza, and renewed his call for a full ceasefire.
  • “Inaction” = complicity, says China: China’s ambassador, Zhang Jun, said that Israel has “turned a deaf ear” to the UN General Assembly resolution passed last week, and warned that regional peace could collapse unless both sides agree to a ceasefire. Inaction is tantamount to complicity in the bloodshed, he said.

Remember: The debate was called by the UAE a few days after the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce, a motion which has so far gone ignored by Israel and its chief backer, the US. The debate at the General Assembly was brought by Jordan after the US vetoed several Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire.

More aid deliveries, but it’s still nowhere near enough: Twenty-six aid trucks crossed from Egypt into Gaza yesterday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said yesterday. This takes the total number of trucks to have entered Gaza since 7 October to 144, it said. Prior to the war, 500 trucks entered every day.

Tags: