Israel says will coordinate with Egypt before Rafah offensive

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz delivers his speech during the 60th Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich on Feb. 16, 2024. (AFP)

• “Egypt is our ally, we have peace agreements with Egypt, and we will operate in a way that does not hurt the Egyptian interests,” Katz said
• Katz underlined that US President Joe Biden would also be briefed on any military offensive

MUNICH: Israel will coordinate with Egypt before launching any military offensive in the southern Gazan border city Rafah, the Israeli foreign minister pledged Friday.
“We will operate in Rafah after we coordinate with Egypt,” Israel Katz told journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, where 180 dignitaries have gathered to discuss conflicts around the globe.
“Egypt is our ally, we have peace agreements with Egypt, and we will operate in a way that does not hurt the Egyptian interests,” he said.
Fears had been growing for the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the north of Gaza to Rafah as Israeli troops advanced into the territory to wage war on Hamas.
But Israel is now planning a major operation in the overcrowded city. With the border to Egypt closed, nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are essentially trapped there.
Katz underlined that US President Joe Biden would also be briefed on any military offensive, as he stressed his country’s determination to push ahead with the operation to root out Hamas fighters.
“If Sinwar and the Hamas murderers think that they can find protection in Rafah, it will not happen,” he said, referring to Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar.
“That’s why we will offer the civilians safe areas they can go to, and we will then deal with Hamas.”
According to the Wall Street Journal and an Egyptian NGO, Cairo is constructing a walled camp in the Sinai Peninsula to receive displaced Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip, according to a media report and an Egyptian human rights monitor.
The compound, part of “contingency plans” if ceasefire talks in Cairo failed, could accommodate more than 100,000 people, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian NGO, also released a report this week that it said showed construction of the compound to receive Palestinian refugees “in the case of a mass exodus.”
Israel, which is waging a four-month-old war against Hamas militants in the territory, has said it had no plans to move civilians there.
Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip since October 7, when Hamas fighters launched a deadly assault on border communities in southern Israel.
Some 1,160 died, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, while about 250 were taken hostage. Israel estimates that some 130 are still in Gaza but 30 may be dead.
According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, at least 28,775 people have been killed in the territory since the start of the war.