Ahmed Asmar
12 February 2024•Update: 12 February 2024
ISTANBUL
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Monday that his country is committed to upholding its peace treaty with Israel.
“There is a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, which has been in effect for the past 40 years, and we deal confidently and effectively and will continue to do so in this stage,” Shoukry said during a press conference with his Slovenian counterpart Tanja Fajon in the capital Ljubljana.
His remarks come after an earlier report on US media claimed that Cairo has threatened to suspend its peace deal with Israel over a planned ground offensive in Rafah city near the border with Egypt.
Egypt signed the Camp David Accords with Israel in 1979 under which Tel Aviv withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula.
Shoukry said Cairo is seeking to broker a deal between Hamas and Israel for the release of hostages and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The Israeli army plans to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, home to more than 1.4 million residents seeking refuge from war, to defeat what Tel Aviv calls the remaining "Hamas battalions."
Palestinians have sought refuge in Rafah as Israel pounded the rest of the enclave since Oct. 7. The ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 28,340 victims and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war on Gaza has 85% of the territory’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
In late 2023, South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of failing to uphold its commitments under the 1948 Genocide Convention.
In its interim ruling in January, the UN court ruled that South Africa’s claims are plausible. It ordered provisional measures for Israel’s government to desist from genocidal acts, and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar
