In recent days, Israeli officials have said they plan to send ground troops into Rafah as the next stage in their war against Hamas. More than a million Palestinians, the majority of Gaza’s population, have been sheltering in the city.
Over the weekend, the Associated Press quoted two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat saying that a mass influx of Palestinians into Egypt could endanger the treaty. And on Saturday, Josep Borrell, the European Union foreign policy chief, said an Israeli invasion of Rafah would “lead to an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe and grave tensions with Egypt.”
But on Monday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry denied the AP report and said that Egypt would uphold the its accord with Israel, which the countries signed in 1979.
“A peace agreement between Egypt and Israel already exists, which has been in effect for the past forty years, and we will continue it,” Shoukry said at a press conference in Slovenia, where he is on an official visit. READ MORE
