In two different moves, UAE and Egypt both rebuked Israel’s ongoing attacks against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
This Friday, the UAE issued a formal statement, demanding the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to vote on a draft resolution that the Arab country proposed in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
The draft resolution called on the Security Council to hold an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the war between Palestinian resistance factions and Israel. The UNSC will meet Saturday afternoon to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza and most probably the UAE-proposed resolution.
“The situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic and close to irreversible. We cannot wait. The Council needs to act decisively to demand a humanitarian ceasefire,” the UAE mission to the UN wrote in the statement, adding also that “the UAE draft resolution has the support of the Arab and OIC groups. This is a moral and humanitarian imperative, and we urge all countries to support the call of the Secretary-General.”
The UAE’s formal call on the UNSC to hold a ceasefire in Gaza against the will of Israel came after a day earlier, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced he would use his authority as the head of the UN to invoke the rarely used article 99 of the UN Charter in a letter addressed to the UNSC. The article notes that “the Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
The number of casualties on the Palestinians’ side is growing alarmingly and in almost wo months since the war began, Israeli strikes from air and land have killed more than 20 thousand Palestinians, including 8,176 children. Washington and Tel Aviv both oppose a ceasefire in Gaza, claiming that any pause in the war would mean a chance to Hamas to rearm and even arrange for new deadly attacks against Israel.
Cairo warned Israel of displacing Palestinians
Alongside the UAE, Egypt also warned Israel this Friday that “if Palestinians are forcibly displaced into the Sinai desert as a result of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign of Gaza,” it could severely affect bilateral relations between Egypt and Israel. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi previously dismissed any sort of expulsion of Palestinians from their lands into the Sinai desert.
“Displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Sinai means transferring the conflict and the killings from Gaza to Sinai, where Sinai becomes a base for launching operations against Israel,” the Egyptian president said. “In this case, Israel will have the right to defend itself, so it directs its strikes against Egyptian territory.”
According to a report by the Axios on Friday, Egyptian officials, including those in the military and intelligence service, have reportedly told their counterparts in the Israeli army and Shin Bet that they were “highly concerned” about what the continuation of the war in Gaza could mean for Egypt.
Egypt’s concerns emanate from a report by the Israeli culture magazine Mekomit on October 28, according to which, a leaked document issued by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence suggested that the Israeli military intended to occupy the whole Gaza and displace its 2.3 million inhabitants to the Sinai Peninsula, transferring them all into North of the Egyptian desert.
