Egypt’s dilemma over Israel-Hamas war: open its border to fleeing Palestinians or leave them to their fate
- Cairo fears once the Palestinians have left Gaza, Israel may never let them return, weakening their aspirations to statehood
- The influential University of Al-Azhar in Egypt said ‘it’s better to die as a hero and a martyr on your land rather than abandon it to the colonialist usurpers’
After Israel declared a “complete siege” of Gaza, neighbouring Egypt is faced with a dilemma: open the last remaining exit to a flood of refugees, or leave the Palestinians to their fate.
It’s not a simple calculation for Egypt, which is mindful that once the Palestinians have left Gaza, Israel may never let them return, weakening their aspirations to statehood.
Fleeing is also a last resort for many inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, already a territory of refugees whose families were driven there when Israel was created in 1948.
“We will stay, we will not leave,” Jamal al-Masri said on Thursday, after his house in Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp was destroyed in an Israeli air raid.
The latest crisis was sparked by last week’s attack by militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, left more than 1,300 people dead in Israel. Israeli reprisal strikes have killed over 1,500 in the narrow strip of sea-bound territory.
Fears for Gazans have soared after Israel warned 1.1 million – nearly half of the total population – to evacuate the territory’s north, ahead of an expected ground offensive.
