CAIRO: An Israeli strike on a crowded tent camp housing Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza prompted condemnations on Wednesday from across the region and beyond.
The strike hit Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip, which Israel had designated as a humanitarian zone early in the war.
Egypt condemned the bombardment in the strongest terms.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates also called for “intensifying efforts to restore hope to the Palestinian people in achieving self-determination and regaining their freedom.”
Al-Mawasi has been turned into the main displacement and refuge area for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who have been ordered by the Israeli military to leave their homes.
The Egyptian statement denounced the “continued Israeli massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip in the absence of any effective international action to put an end to such human suffering.”
It said Israeli actions “challenge the credibility of all humanitarian standards and values and constitute a violation of the most basic rules of international humanitarian law and human rights.”
It also said Egypt “considers that the continuation of these crimes and the disregard for the lives of innocents and civilians has become a threat to regional and international peace and security and calls on all global stakeholders to shun the policy of double standards and assume their humanitarian and moral responsibilities to halt this human tragedy immediately.”
The statement said Egypt “reminds all parties that putting an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people in a just manner and restoring regional security and stability will not only be achieved by reaching a full ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, but also by achieving a just and lasting settlement to this conflict — the sole foundation of which is the two-state solution based on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
Tor Wennesland, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process since 2021, also condemned the strike, saying international humanitarian law “must be upheld at all times.”
