Israel said on Friday that it would not try to force Palestinians from southern Gaza into Egypt, seeking to calm Palestinian fears of a mass displacement even as Israeli forces pressed ahead with a military operation inside the largest hospital in the area.
After months of speculation that the Israeli invasion of Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks would end with millions of Gazans being pushed into northeastern Egypt, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Friday that no one would be forced to leave.
The announcement appeared to reverse secret Israeli efforts earlier in the war to promote the idea of sending millions of Gazans into Egypt, a move that Palestinians feared might lock them out of their homeland and led to warnings that Egypt might suspend its peace treaty with Israel. Photographs also show that Egypt has started construction near the border, which some fear is meant to house a sudden rush of refugees from Gaza.
In a statement, Mr. Gallant said: “The State of Israel has no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt. We respect and value our peace agreement with Egypt, which is a cornerstone of stability in the region as well as an important partner.”
They’re not going to force the Gazans, no. They’re just going to systematically flatten Gaza and shoot people and if the Gazans choose to flee to Egypt, well, that’s out of Israel’s hands.
They could stay in Gaza if Israel weren’t bombing it to little pieces
Israel promised four months ago that all Palestinians can return north at the end of the war.
Their word is very credible and they totally didn’t blow up and bullzode everyone’s house with high explosives.
But they can return to the north if they want to. In fact, they are making that more likely as we speak by making the south as unliveable as the north.
Egypt also isn’t taking them.
Nor should they have to.
They should be allowed to stay in their country, not be ethnically cleansed.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After months of speculation that the Israeli invasion of Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks would end with millions of Gazans being pushed into northeastern Egypt, Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, said on Friday that no one would be forced to leave.
Mr. Gallant’s intervention came amid growing concern from international leaders that Israel’s planned operation along the Gaza-Egypt border, where the majority of Gazans have sought shelter after fleeing their homes elsewhere in Gaza, would end in catastrophe.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said on Friday that the planned maneuver could end in an “unprecedented humanitarian disaster,” becoming the latest foreign leader to speak out against displacing Palestinians into Egypt.
The statements came as Israeli special forces were combing southern Gaza’s largest hospital in search of hostages’ remains on Friday, and as Gazan officials announced that a power outage at the medical center had caused the deaths of five Palestinians in the critical care unit.
Communications with people inside the Nasser complex, in the city of Khan Younis, have been extremely spotty since Israel’s military pushed into its grounds, smashing through the perimeter and entering the compound as explosions and gunfire rang out.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Friday morning that the cut to the hospital’s power supply was endangering the lives of six adult patients in critical care and three infants in incubators who were dependent on oxygen.
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