Israeli media said that Egypt threatened Israel with a complete boycott if it tried to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to its lands.

The Israeli i24NEWS channel explained that relations between Israel and Egypt have recently witnessed their lowest levels since the war in Gaza, as officials from both sides exchange accusations and are approaching the point during which it will be difficult to heal this rift.

The Hebrew channel said that the Egyptian intelligence service did not find any evidence of a plan to expel the Palestinians from Gaza, but these statements, according to these officials, convinced the Egyptian government that there appeared to be a “secret Israeli plan,” and no response was received from Israel on this issue.

The Hebrew channel added that Egyptian anger against Israel has doubled in the last two weeks after the statements of the defense team at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and the categorical accusation and imposition of responsibility on Egypt for not bringing sufficient humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. In the days after the court, Arab media outlets repeatedly quoted statements by a lawyer on the Israeli defense team, Christopher Stecker, as saying at the time that “entry into the Gaza Strip from Egypt is subject to Egyptian control, and Israel has no obligation under international law to allow entry into Gaza from its territory.” 

Israeli officials said that in the third phase of the war - that is, the current phase - Israeli forces will be moved towards the Palestinian city of Rafah, adjacent to the Egyptian border, to cleanse it of Palestinian resistance.

Israeli Channel 13 reported that Tel Aviv conveyed a message to Egypt through a number of channels in recent days, while Cairo expressed real “concern” about such a step.

Israeli television explained that the main reason behind Egyptian concern about this step is because it may lead to a mass migration to Sinai, while Israel responded to Egypt in order to reassure it that the talk is about a temporary step, and that Israel will not continue its presence in the region after the operation - which has not yet been finally approved.

While sources told the Israeli channel i24NEWS that due to the differences between the two countries, it was approved to establish joint work crews between Israel and Egypt.

A senior Israeli official said that relations between the two countries had been "very tense" in recent weeks.

It should be noted that relations between the two countries have witnessed great tension, reaching their lowest levels in decades, according to statements by Egyptian officials recently reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Despite discussions in Egypt about returning the ambassador from Israel, these events come in light of Israel's accusations that Cairo is responsible for the failure to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

The disputes between the two countries began when Egypt refused to condemn the Palestinian resistance operation on October 7, and the disputes continued after an incident in which an Israeli bomb targeted targets in Rafah, which led to the injury of a number of Egyptian soldiers. For its part, Israel accused Egypt of allowing Hamas to smuggle weapons across its borders, but Egypt denied these accusations.

In addition, the war caused damage to economic relations between the two countries, as Israeli tourism in Sinai stopped after the war, and Egypt’s revenues from operating the Suez Canal declined due to Houthi operations in the Red Sea, according to the Hebrew channel.

According to American reports, this year Egypt lost about 40% of its income from crossing the Suez Canal compared to last year, which threatens to incur huge financial losses if the crisis in the Red Sea continues.

Earlier last week, it was reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to initiate a phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, but his request was rejected, and the Egyptian authorities did not respond to the request of the Israeli National Security Council, which initiated the matter.

Netanyahu continues to put pressure on Egypt to bring in refugees from Gaza in large numbers, while President Sisi and Egyptian army officials expressed concerns about the Israeli rhetoric about voluntary displacement, as it, among other things, raised the question of transferring a portion of Gaza’s population to Egypt.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Anwar Sadat, a former member of the Egyptian Parliament and nephew of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, told the American newspaper that since the war began in Gaza, there has been a lack of trust between the two sides.

Source: Israeli i24NEWS channel + Sama News