The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Hamas-controlled Gaza opened on Wednesday for foreign nationals and select Palestinians needing medical attention, multiple news agencies on site confirmed – but Egypt has steadfastly refused to aid Palestinians seeking refuge from the genocidal jihadist organization that rules Gaza.
Gaza is currently experiencing a military campaign by the government of Israel against Hamas in response to the October 7 invasion of that country and mass murder of over 1,400 civilians – including elderly, disabled, and child victims as young as newborns. Hamas terrorists reportedly opened fire on attendees at a music festival and committed acts of rape, torture, abduction, and other crimes against humanity. Israeli authorities responding to the “al-Aqsa flood,” as Hamas refers to the attack, reported finding the bodies of babies without their heads and children with knives left in their lifeless bodies.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are targeting tunnels Hamas uses to funnel arms and explosives in and out of Gaza, as well as weapons depots and other strategic locations. Hamas has traditionally placed those locations near civilian sites, such as hospitals and schools, using Palestinians as human shields.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has repeatedly emphasized his alleged support of the Palestinian “cause” in the aftermath of the Hamas slaughter, but refused to open the Rafah border crossing to Palestinian civilians held hostage in Gaza by Hamas. In a phone call with leftist American President Joe Biden on Sunday, Sisi once again insisted on “ensuring that Palestinians in Gaza are not displaced to Egypt,” meaning Cairo would not accept those seeking to escape Hamas.
Palestinians with foreign passports at Rafah Border Gate wait to cross into Egypt in Rafah, Gaza on November 01, 2023. (Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu via Getty)
Sisi’s government did open the Rafah crossing – Gaza’s only international crossing – on Wednesday, reportedly allowing over 500 “foreign nationals” to leave. According to Reuters, the Hamas-linked government of Qatar brokered a deal to allow people possessing foreign passports and some “critically injured” people to enter Egypt from Gaza. The Qatari outlet Al Jazeera, reporting from the scene, described long lines forming outside the crossing in Gaza and the Egyptian government publishing lists of hundreds of names of people being allowed out.
The governor of North Sinai, which borders Gaza, confirmed that some of those injured in Gaza during the anti-Hamas operation would be welcome to Egyptian hospitals.
“Previously, North Sinai Governor Mohamed Shosha said the governorate’s hospitals had been put on alert to receive injured Palestinians as soon as the crossing opens,” Egypt’s al-Ahram newspaper reported. “Governor Shosha also stated that a field hospital with 50 beds was being set up in Sheikh Zuweid City, west of Rafah, raising the total capacity of hospitals in North Sinai to 350.”
Al-Ahram reported that Egypt had placed 40 ambulances on standby to pick up injured Palestinians and foreigners.
Hamas claims that Israeli operations against itself in Gaza have injured over 15,000 people – a number many international figures, including Biden, have openly doubted given the terrorist organization’s history of distorting information to malign Israel.
“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people were killed,” Biden said during a press conference on October 25. “I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
It remains unclear at press time how many foreigners are currently in Gaza. The U.S. State Department estimates that at least 400 American citizens are currently in Gaza with no way out. Reports on Wednesday did not note how many Americans are among those Egypt was willing to take.
Palestinian passport control policemen affiliated with Hamas check the travel documents of people waiting to cross to Egypt at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on November 1, 2023. (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)
Sisi has repeatedly rejected allowing Palestinians to leave Gaza despite the allegedly high injury and death rates during Israeli operations, the result of Hamas using civilians as human shields. Shortly after the October 7 terrorist attack, Sisi boasted that Egypt had warmly welcomed “nine million guests,” but Palestinians were “different.”
“The matter is different as the [Palestinian] cause is the top cause of all Arabs and it is important that [Palestinian] people remain steadfast and present on their lands,” he insisted.
“There will be no compromise on Egypt’s national security under any circumstances, and the Egyptian people must be aware of the complexities of the situation and the magnitude of the threat,” Sisi also said that week, suggesting Palestinian refugees presented a national security threat.
Sisi again repeated his rejection of Palestinians on October 18.
“The idea of displacing Palestinians to Sinai means dragging Egypt into a war against Israel,” he said. “Sinai would become a base for operations against Israel and, in this case, it would be within Israel’s right to defend itself and its national security. It would direct attacks on Egyptian land.”
Sisi suggested that the civilians should be tossed into Israel’s Negev Desert “till the militants are dealt with,” then moved back to Gaza.
“If there is an idea to displace Palestinians from Gaza, why not transfer them to the Negev until the armed groups in Gaza, such as Hamas and PIJ, are eliminated?” he asked.
Sisi at the time suggested that he would face the wrath of “millions” of Egyptians if he accepted Palestinian refugees. Reports citing local sentiment appear to support his claims. In a report days after the Hamas terrorist attack, the Emirati newspaper The National published comments from regular Egyptians in Cairo expressing vague support for Palestinians but not offering them a welcome in their own country.
“Egypt has enough refugees living in it,” Noha El Sayed, an antiques dealer in Cairo, told the newspaper. “Just over the past 10 years or so, many Syrians came here to flee their war, then many thousands of Yemenis came when war broke out over there too. Then just this year, when war broke out in Sudan, the same happened and we allowed Sudanese refugees in.”
On Tuesday, shortly before the opening of Rafah for foreigners, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly insisted that any aid to Palestinians must not come at the “expense” of Egypt.
“We are prepared to sacrifice millions of lives to ensure that no one encroaches upon our territory,” Madbouly asserted.
People sit in the waiting area at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip before crossing into Egypt on November 1, 2023. ( MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)
Egypt’s rejection of Palestinian refugees differs significantly from the attitudes among American leftist leaders, some of whom have called for the United States to take in the refugees.
“Fifty percent of the population in Gaza are children. The international community as well as the United States should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) declared in mid-October, “while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas.”
White House Strategic Communications chief John Kirby suggested at a press conference on Tuesday that the Biden administration would attempt to convince Egypt to offer “some sort of temporary subsistence capability” for Palestinian refugees, despite the vocal and effusive rejections from Cairo.
“Should we be able to secure that, we would have conversations with partners in the region including Egypt about what the capacity would be to provide some sort of temporary subsistence capability for the families wanting to get out of Gaza,” Kirby said.
Al-Ahram, citing an unnamed “western diplomat,” reported that the Egyptian government had no interest in such a deal.
“The Egyptian position is and has always been very clear and they just will not do it,” the diplomat was quoted as saying.
