Egypt announced on Sunday a summit on “the Palestinian Cause” amidst the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. Concurrently, concerns are growing over Israeli evacuation warnings that suggest a potential resettlement of Gazans in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Egypt said Sunday it plans to host a summit on “the future of the Palestinian Cause” as the Israel-Hamas war raged in Gaza and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Cairo.
Egypt controls the Rafah border crossing, the only passage in and out of the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel, which has been closed since Tuesday after three Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian side.
Palestinians and foreigners have been unable to flee, and aid trucks bound for Gaza have been waiting in El Arish, 50 kilometers (30 miles) away.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (C) meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (2L) in Cairo on October 15, 2023. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin / AFP)

Israeli forces have readied to invade Gaza with the aim of destroying Hamas, the Islamist militant group that unleashed the bloodiest attack in the country’s history.

Israel has warned more than one million north Gaza residents to flee to the south of the territory ahead of the expected ground battles focused in and around Gaza City.

Gazans into Egypt’s Sinai

Cairo, historically a key intermediary between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement ruling Gaza, faces mounting pressure to allow fleeing Palestinians to enter Egypt.

Israeli evacuation warnings for Palestinians have stirred fears that Israel is pushing to resettle Gazans into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which Israel has occupied in the past.

Internally displaced Palestinians take refuge in a United Nations-run school in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis on October 15, 2023, as fighting between Israel and the Hamas movement continues for the ninth consecutive day. (Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP)

In a televised interview with Al Jazeera, Israel’s former Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said Cairo “will have to play ball” and allow “temporary” settlement in the “almost endless space” in Sinai, a vast desert region.

Sinai has been the site of a multi-year fight against Islamist insurgents that has devastated North Sinai communities.

Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP