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(May 24, 2024 / JNS)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi agreed to restore the flow of aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during a telephone call with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.

Egypt halted U.N. aid deliveries into the southern city of Rafah after the Israeli military took control of the Gazan side of the Egypt-Gaza border. In Friday’s call, el-Sisi agreed to let the aid flow through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border.

“President Biden welcomed the commitment from President el-Sisi to permit the flow of U.N.-provided humanitarian assistance from Egypt through the Kerem Shalom crossing on a provisional basis for onward distribution throughout Gaza,” the White House stated in its readout of the call. “This will help save lives.”

The Egyptian readout of the call said that the deliveries would consist of “humanitarian aid and fuel” and would continue “temporarily until a legal mechanism is reached to reoperate the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side.”

  • FlowVoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    35·
    6 months ago

    Rafah is the only Gazan border crossing that isn’t controlled by Israel

    Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1982, which saw the Jewish state withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula that it had captured from Egypt in 1967.

    Israel then opened the Rafah crossing, which it controlled until it withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Between then and Hamas’ takeover of Gaza in 2007, the crossing was controlled by the European Union, which worked closely with Egyptian officials.

    Between 2005 and 2007, some 450,000 passengers used the crossing with an average of about 1,500 people per day.

    The Rafah crossing has since been tightly controlled, with limited access and lengthy bureaucratic and security processes required of Palestinians wishing to cross into Egypt.

    Travelers require an exit permit from Hamas and an entry permit from Egypt

    • bamboo@lemm.eeEnglish
      71·
      6 months ago

      Normally this would be correct, but recently Israel took over the Palestine side of the crossing as part of their invasion of Rafah. The first thing they did while taking over was shut down aid deliveries.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
        43·
        6 months ago

        That’s true, I was addressing the claim that Egypt lost control of the crossing after their peace deal with Israel.

        Israel and Egypt currently share control of the crossing. And until recently, Egypt refused to reopen the crossing. So it’s not accurate to imply that Egypt has no say in what happens, or that Biden’s intervention was irrelevant.

    • SulaymanF@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      6 months ago

      That’s still misleading; the treaty gives Israel the right to veto anything through the crossing even if Egypt owns the crossing.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
        12·
        6 months ago

        Both sides can restrict a border crossing. This is true of all border crossings, not just the one with Egypt.

        So for example Canada could block movement of any or all people or goods through its border with the US, if for some reason it wanted to. The US could do the same. The UK could block the EU, and the EU could block the UK. Ukraine has restricted movement of Ukrainian men through its border with Poland, and Poland at some point restricted the movement of Ukrainian grain. And so on.

        • SulaymanF@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          6 months ago

          That’s a lame attempt to misdirect; Israel is blocking aid through the crossing. I don’t care what Canada or other countries do when the outcome is the same. And not just aid; Americans were blocked from fleeing Gaza including doctors and medical volunteers and it required the US State Department to pressure Israel into letting them out.

            • SulaymanF@lemmy.worldEnglish
              11·
              6 months ago

              According to JNS, which explicitly says in their donation request at the bottom of the article that they’re trying to defend Israel. No bias there right?

              Israel seized the crossing in violation of the treaty. Israel blocked aid until the ICJ chastised them, then they said they’d allow aid through despite blocking it, now the US pressured Egypt to accept their loss and treaty violations and ship things anyway.

                • SulaymanF@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  11·
                  6 months ago

                  Again, like I said above. Israel broke the treaty and seized the crossing. They initially restricted everything and then announced they were opening some of it after international pressure. Egypt then later decided it wasn’t going to play Israel’s game with its seized crossing and didn’t allow stuff to be sent, now they’re relenting on behalf of Palestinians despite the loss of Egyptian property in Israeli theft.

                  In what way does this make Israel look good in any of this?

                  • FlowVoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    12·
                    6 months ago

                    I’m not trying to make Israel look good.

                    To quote myself:

                    Israel and Egypt currently share control of the crossing. And until recently, Egypt refused to reopen the crossing. So it’s not accurate to imply that Egypt has no say in what happens, or that Biden’s intervention was irrelevant.