Egyptian FM press conference
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that Hamas was outside the Palestinian consensus, in a press conference at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
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"There must be accountability for how Hamas acquired so much power in Gaza and why it was funded to increase the rift with other peace loving Palestinian factions," Shouky said in response to a question posed by former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
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Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Munich Security Conference
(Photo: Reuters)
Despite unequivocal opposition by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to settle displaced Gazans in Egypt, Shoukry said that if Palestinians cross the border into the Sinai from the Gaza Strip, they would be treated by Egypt humanely. "It is not our intention to provide any safe areas or facilities, but if this was the case we would deal with the matter with in the humane way necessary."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in press conference on Saturday that the IDF offensive will continue until "absolute victory, including in Rafah."
Amid reports that Egypt is constructing an area that would house Gazan residents fleeing the fighting in its territory, Shoukry said this was a hypothetical. "We have constantly been dealing with maintenance on our border so I think it is jumping to conclusions to what those activities constitute."
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Egyptian safe space will alleviate extreme density in Rafah
(Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa, Reuters)
The Governor of North Sinai said on Friday that the works being undertaken are for storage of humanitarian aid for Gaza and its construction near the border is meant to ease its transport into the Strip.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing official sources in Cairo, that the Egyptian authorities were concerned about an Israeli operation in the Rafah area, and therefore, a fortified compound was being built in the Sinai Peninsula on an area of about 13 square kilometers. According to those sources, the area being built can accommodate up to 100,000 people.
The governor denied the report although a photo of the wall around the compound built to receive at least 1.5 million refugees, who are now housed in tents in open areas near the coast.
Egyptian contractors building the compound near the Gaza border and erecting the wall claim that in the first stage, its height will be seven meters but would be raised further if necessary. Homes built by Bedouins living in the Sinai are to be demolished to make room for the compound and the contractors employed for the project were hired to rebuild some of the buildings destroyed in the war.
Israeli and American officials are likely in the know about the compound's construction and may have agreed to keep the matter quiet.