JERUSALEM

Israel claimed on Wednesday that its military takeover of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip does not violate its peace treaty with Egypt.

“Israel is aware of the sensitivity of military operations near the Egyptian border. We affirm that this operation does not violate the peace treaty between the two countries,” Ofir Gendelman, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a video message on X.

“The operation at the Rafah crossing will continue until Hamas is eliminated, and releasing the Israeli hostages,” he added.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 under which Tel Aviv withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and the two countries normalized their relations

The Israeli army on Tuesday seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, a vital route for humanitarian aid into the besieged territory.

The move came one day after the army issued evacuation orders for Palestinians in eastern Rafah, a move widely seen as a prelude to Israel's long-feared attack on the city, home to some 1.5 million displaced Palestinians.

Egypt has condemned Israel’s military control of the Rafah crossing as a “dangerous escalation" that endangers the safety of more than one million Palestinians.

Cairo, however, did not specify if the Israeli move was a violation of its peace treaty with Israel.

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas last Oct. 7 which killed some 1,200 people.

More than 34,800 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and 78,400 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Over 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 in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul