Egypt, Qatar condemn Netanyahu remarks on displacing Palestinians in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks regarding the displacement of Palestinians, including through the Rafah crossing, have been condemned by Egypt and Qatar.

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the remarks in a statement released on Friday as part of “ongoing attempts to prolong the escalation in the region and perpetuate instability while avoiding accountability for Israeli violations in Gaza.”

Netanyahu claimed that “half of the population wants to leave Gaza,” making it clear that it was not a “mass expulsion” in an interview with the Israeli Telegram channel Abu Ali Express.

He said, “I can open Rafah for them, but Egypt will immediately shut it down.”

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry once more declared its “categorical rejection of forcing or coercively removing Palestinians from their lands.”

Egypt emphasizes that these actions constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes that cannot be tolerated, according to the ministry.

The statement stated that Egypt would never be a factor in the displacement of Palestinians and that it would never engage in such behavior. It described this as a “red line” that cannot be crossed.

The phrase “collective punishment will not work”

Netanyahu’s statements were also subject to fierce criticism from Qatar’s foreign ministry, which it called an “extension of the occupation’s approach to violating the brotherly Palestinian people.”

The occupation’s “police of collective punishment” does not succeed in obstructing the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights or forcing them to leave their land, it said in a statement.

The international community must “unite with determination to confront the extremist and provocative policies of the Israeli occupation, in order to stop the cycle of violence in the region from spreading to the world.”

Egypt and Qatar are pursuing a ceasefire in Gaza and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave as they continue to lead the mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel.

Netanyahu’s comments were “incredibly controversial,” according to Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, who was based in Amman. The Israeli government has stated that it wants the Palestinians out of Gaza.

She said that Qatar and Egypt’s condemnation of Israel basically tells Israel that it is the one who waged war against the Gaza Strip, that the continued crimes against the Palestinians and the total closure of the Rafah border crossing are the causes of their imprisonment in Gaza, not any other reason.