Egypt condemns Israeli military control of Rafah crossing: Egyptian Foreign Ministry

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) - The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned the Israeli military control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, describing the move as "a dangerous escalation."

In a statement, the ministry strongly condemned "the Israeli military operations in the Palestinian Rafah city, and what resulted of an Israeli control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing."

The statement considered the Israeli military operations in Rafah "a dangerous escalation that threatens the lives of more than one million Palestinians who primarily rely on the crossing which is considered as the main lifeline to the Gaza Strip."

Egypt called on Israel to practice "maximum restraint" and for the international parties to intervene "to defuse the current crisis."

The Israeli army early on Tuesday said its forces seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The spokesman of the Palestinian border crossing authority confirmed earlier that the border was closed from the Palestinian side.

Video footage shared by Israeli media outlets, including the Times of Israel, showed an Israeli tank at the Rafah crossing.

Following the Palestinian Hamas group's announcement of accepting a Qatari-Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, Israel’s War Cabinet decided to push ahead with an operation in Rafah.

The Israeli army issued immediate evacuation orders early Monday for Palestinians in the eastern neighborhoods of Rafah and called on them to move to the town of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.

Rafah is home to more than 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who have taken refuge from the war launched by Israel following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed nearly 1,200 people.

Since then, the Israeli onslaught has killed more than 34,780 Palestinians, mostly women and children, besides causing a humanitarian catastrophe.

Nearly seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians there.