Egypt reportedly seeks long-term truce between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza
The Egyptian government is reportedly seeking a long-term truce between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the Jewish state.
Egyptian officials negotiated with representatives of the Gaza-based terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Cairo, the Al-Araby TV news outlet reported.
An unnamed source stressed, “arrangements that are the first of their kind.” If successful, the negotiations in Cairo, “would lead to a relatively long-term truce,” the source added.
Egyptian officials were also holding talks with Iranian counterparts “due to Tehran's role in supporting Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.”
The Iranian ayatollah regime, which openly calls for Israel’s destruction, has built a vast regional network of terrorist proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
In May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for Cairo’s “intensive efforts to secure a ceasefire” between Islamic Jihad and Israel.
An Egyptian source informed Al-Araby that “among the arrangements is the expansion of the volume of trade exchange with the Gaza Strip, starting from the Egyptian port of Al-Arish.”
Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip from 1948 until the Six-Day War in 1967. Since then, Cairo has clearly distanced itself from the politically unstable Gaza Strip.
The source also expressed Egypt’s reluctance to be overly involved in the daily affairs of Gaza and risk its relationship with the international community.
“Egypt's lack of enthusiasm to expand its roles in terms of managing projects inside the Gaza Strip,” is due to fear that it would make Cairo “primarily responsible before international powers and Israel, in the event of any weapons leaking into the Strip through the port.”
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
