Egypt, Spain call for immediate Gaza cease-fire, reject Israeli attack on Rafah

By Ibrahim al-Khazen

CAIRO (AA) – Egypt and Spain on Thursday rejected any Israeli military offensive in Rafah city and called for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held talks in Cairo with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares to discuss bilateral ties and regional developments, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

The two sides rejected military escalation in Gaza and warned against any Israeli military operation in Rafah, where 1.4 million people have taken refuge from Israel’s ongoing offensive on the enclave.

They also rejected “all measures that could lead to liquidating the Palestinian cause by displacing Palestinians from their land,” the statement said.

Sisi and Albares also called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and for providing sufficient humanitarian aid to the territory, the statement added.

Israel has waged a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last October which killed some 1,200 people.

More than 31,300 people have since been killed and 73,100 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while most of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in an interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

* Writing by Rania Abu Shamala.