Middle East Press on: Hamas, Gaza, Israel, Trump, and Egypt: New Age Islam's Selection, 5 February 2025
By New Age Islam Edit Desk
05 Feb, 2025
1. False victory: Why Hamas sells the illusion of triumph as Gaza lies in ruin
2. Hamas’s hostage circus exposes the hypocrisy of Gaza’s victim narrative
3. The PA renders the Palestinians vulnerable to Israel’s ethnic cleansing
4. How far will Trump go for Israel?
5. Egypt’s options for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza
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False Victory: Why Hamas Sells the Illusion of Triumph As Gaza Lies In Ruin
By Zina Rakhamilova
February 5, 2025
Since the beginning of the recent ceasefire deal, a new and ridiculous narrative has emerged – one that Hamas and its terror supporters in the West are trying to convince the rest of the world.
Since the fighting between Israel and Hamas stopped, social media has flooded with images of Gazans celebrating a so-called “victory.” Hamas terrorists have finally shed their civilian clothes, used to blend into crowds and go unnoticed, and have put on their uniforms and weapons to present as if they are victorious and still on top.
Anyone with common sense understands that nothing about Gaza right now resembles a victory. After 16 months of war, Gaza lies in ruins, its infrastructure shattered and its society set back by half a century.
Hamas’s leadership is crippled, half of its fighters have been killed, entire neighbourhoods have been wiped out, and hundreds of thousands of civilians are displaced. Yet, despite this devastation, Hamas and its allies are aggressively pushing a different story.
Who in their right mind would look at the devastation in Gaza right now and think this is what a victory looks like?
Hamas and Hezbollah have long mastered the art of misinformation, using it to whitewash their own terrorism and war crimes. Their latest effort follows the same pattern: seize control of the narrative, manipulate public perception, and absolve themselves of any responsibility for the suffering they have inflicted.
The truth is that Hamas knew exactly what it was doing when it launched its brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The slaughter of 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 hostages was never about military strategy or Palestinian liberation.
It was about inciting war. Hamas understood that Israel would retaliate, and it was prepared to use Palestinian suffering as a weapon. Since then, it has deliberately propagated Holocaust distortions and weaponized the term “genocide” to gain international sympathy and shield itself from accountability.
And now? The very same terrorists who butchered civilians in their homes and are responsible for the devastation in Gaza are setting up theatrical propaganda hostage releases with banners that say “Palestine – the victory of the oppressed people vs the Nazi Zionism.”
They are not victors; they are the architects of their own people’s misery. Their so-called “resistance” has led to thousands of Palestinian deaths, the destruction of entire communities, and a future that looks bleaker than ever.
This is not a victory. It is a tragedy.
Meanwhile, Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, their fates uncertain. Thousands of families on both sides are grieving losses too painful to comprehend. The war has left scars that will take generations to heal.
Yet Hamas continues to sell the illusion of triumph, hoping the world will look past the devastation they have wrought. Don’t be fooled. Hamas has never had a plan for Palestinian prosperity – only destruction.
Its leadership thrives on chaos and suffering, using civilians as human shields while they hide safely in tunnels. The only future Hamas offers is one of perpetual war, poverty, and despair.
Hamas has no future to offer the Palestinian people, and as long as they remain in power and Gazans continue to buy into their propaganda, they will continue to suffer at their hands.
Real victory will never come through jihad or terror. It will only come when the Palestinian people reject Hamas’s tyranny and choose a path of peace, progress, and true liberation.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-840650
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Hamas’s Hostage Circus Exposes the Hypocrisy of Gaza’s Victim Narrative
By Or Yissachar
February 4, 2025
The gruesome PR spectacles produced by Hamas during the release of Israeli hostages have been offering the world a glimpse into the core elements of the Gaza conflict. The true nature of what is often described as a mere territorial dispute, or careless and pointless warfare, is now being exposed as a deep-seated clash between civilizations.
Hamas’ propaganda machine thus resurfaced the central role of information, image, and symbolism in communicating this clash and highlighted how it stretches far beyond the sandy, dusty battlefield. In a way, it also inadvertently helped Israel make its case in its demand to end the war with nothing short of a clear, victorious result.
Over the past fortnight, Hamas released several batches of Israeli hostages in exchange for the release from Israeli prisons of notorious terrorists as part of its commitment to the deal mediated by the United States. Evidently, the terror group was not going to acknowledge loss, concede a compromise, and quietly hand out hostages.
That would be uncharacteristic of insurgent strongmen in an honour-bound Arab culture, heavily reliant on commanding and coercing the respect and awe of their public. Surrounded by destruction and debris, Hamas militants thus chose to stage a carefully-branded victory parade, oblivious to the extent of irony involved – at least, in Western eyes.
As opposed to the ritual in November 2023 – the first hostage deal, when terrorists wearing uniforms simply handed out hostages to the Red Cross, Hamas leveraged the release this time to produce a meticulously-planned show of force. The hostages were forced to become the main actors in the epicentre of a PR spectacle designated to muscle up Hamas’ regained control in Gaza.
Petrified Israeli young women and elderly were forced to march through a stampede of jeering Gaza residents, paraded like trophies. Hamas constructed a stage and invited journalists. It handed the hostages self-proclaimed “release kits” and certificates that it proudly signed and stamped with the Red Cross as a sign of confirmation of its authority toward its people in Gaza.
The frenzied crowd that mobbed the hostages witnessed how Hamas prevents them from accessing their “property” – and Israeli, the most valuable “prize” possible – all while half-enjoying the attention and the respect they commanded.
Hamas then instructed the hostages to wave and smile to the crowd, as captured in one video featuring instructions by a Hamas cameraman signalled to hostage Agam Berger. Other female soldiers kidnapped on October 7 victoriously waved to the crowd as well, in a courageous way that commanded the awe of the Israeli public.
Effectively, Hamas transposed the asset that these hostages constituted for it. It cynically used them as bargaining chips to obtain concessions from Israel. When Israel agreed, their asset converted into being used as props in Hamas’ propaganda machine.
The sensationalized way in which Hamas chose to release these hostages dials back to a fundamental principle of terrorism – intimidate, spread the message, and impose policy through fear. The lesson by Brazilian guerrilla combatant and radical author Carlos Marighella to carry out “armed propaganda,” or heinous acts that would shock and awe public opinion, was not lost on Hamas. It recognizes the power of propaganda to accomplish its goals and does not hesitate to use international media attention to do just that.
Backstage banners
For this reason, it chose to send a message to international viewers by printing out backstage banners in both Arabic and English – one for their home front, one for outsiders. Broadcasted to millions of viewers, the banners denounced “criminal Zionism” and praising “Palestinian freedom fighters”. All of these resonate well with some of the young progressive protesters who cheered Hamas up on college campuses and view it as part of the so-called coalition of the oppressed.
Had anyone doubted Hamas’ true objective, they evaporated with these images. Its determination not to end the so-called occupation but to annihilate Israel and replace it with a Palestinian state that it controls, a vision shared by almost all surveyed Palestinians, was presented in broad daylight for all to see.
In that, Hamas took a page out of the playbook of the Soviet communist regime, the Nazi party, the Iranian mullahs, and the Russian government, who place a high premium on appearances and propaganda. Russian state media featured President Putin shaking hands with released Ukrainian child hostages, who were forced to thank him for allegedly salvaging them from their families.
ISIS handpicked the infamous orange jumpers worn by its slain victims to reflect revenge over the way they see the treatment of Islamist terrorists in the Guantanamo Bay prison. The Nazis invested heavily in propaganda through caricatures, movies, and symbolism and swayed the public by staging heavily-budgeted light spectacles with lit torches in Nuremberg.
Much like it did in the October 7 massacre, when it cruelly livestreamed its slain victims and used everything from go-pro body cameras to drones, Hamas has proven its recognition of the value in mass media. Gone are the days of home-recorded footage showing the abducted Nahshon Waxman (1994) or Gilad Shalit (2009) speaking to the camera. Hamas now invests in blockbuster-level quality video productions showing hostages in cages or militants targeting IDF soldiers, competing for the top spot with their jihadist counterparts at ISIS and the PIJ.
The live coverage by the media, the excitement ramped up in public squares in Israel, and the inflow of pundits and posts only encouraged Hamas to invest more in this diabolical abuse of victims. Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher scorned journalists who inadvertently gave a platform to the IRA’s intimidation campaign, telling them not to cover it and “starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend.”
Granted, today’s hyper stimulated media environment makes it much more complicated to ignore such events, but Thatcher’s lesson does invite us to rethink our attitude to information during war. For example, the avalanche of narratives and claims posing as journalistic reporting during the Gaza war were put to the test by these images, in a way that Hamas did not necessarily intend.
Viewers and readers are repeatedly told to believe that the people of Gaza reject Hamas and unilaterally suffer from Israel’s military actions – in a way that cannot be reconciled with the images of the masses mobbing the hostages and actively participating in their humiliation.
The Gazan population that was alleged to be starving showed up wearing top-to-toe fashion outfits, filming the hostages with fully-charged phones in a way that would make the people of Yemen or South Sudan jealous. One could only wonder how claims over a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, propelled by no other than the United Nations’ Secretary General, reconcile with the HD cameras and HR microphones that documented the hostages’ release, the printing shop that produced the back stage, or the luxurious Chevrolet that brought them to the pickup point.
Propaganda as a viable dimension of war did serve Hamas for intimidation, and certainly scored political points among the Gazans public, yet it is also not unthinkable that Hamas outdid its own success. These over-the-top productions could have done Israel’s job in explaining the true humanitarian situation in Gaza, by raising doubts on the common wisdom surrounding the claims on deliberate starvation and genocide.
These images served Israel better than any chart in debunking these accusations, especially as it committed to allowing hundreds more trucks per day – so far exceeding 1 million tons of aid flowing into Gaza.
Public opinion may have been swayed in Gaza and among Hamas sympathizers abroad, but these images also obtained the opposite result than what Hamas had hoped for. Leaders, commentators, and leading journals widely condemned and rejected this circus. This may help Israel make its case to resume the war after the cease-fire is over.
If there is any lesson learned by the October 7 massacre, it is that such a grave and present threat cannot be left to metastasize unchecked in the Gaza Strip, and needs to be duly removed from power before it can carry out another atrocity. With these outrageous images, Hamas may have helped Israel convince world leaders to have its back to do just that.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-840651
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The Pa Renders the Palestinians Vulnerable to Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing
February 4, 2025
On Sunday, Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council regarding Israel’s colonial violence in the Occupied West Bank, notably the targeting of Jenin and Tulkarem Refugee Camps. Like countless other times, Abbas requested international protection for Palestinians and pressure on Israel to stop its forced displacement of Palestinians.
Wafa news agency reported Abbas linking the ethnic cleansing of the Occupied West Bank with the genocide in Gaza, and stated that the “Palestinian people will meet with steadfastness on their land in defence and preservation of their history and sanctities”. Palestinians would, and they consistently stand against Israel in their legitimate anti-colonial struggle. But let us not forget, even though the PA’s news agency prefers to obliterate, the PA’s role in weakening Jenin by targeting the Palestinian Resistance in Operation Protecting the Homeland.
Abbas targeted the only bulwark that protected Palestinian civilians from the Israeli military. This, despite repeated incitement by several Israeli ministers to bring about the same level of destruction in the Occupied West Bank as Gaza. To put it simply, Abbas gave the green light to ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and genocide when he embarked upon destroying the Palestinian Resistance on the auspices of restoring security and order.
In January this year, Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, stated that Israeli troops will remain in Jenin. Using the usual terror narrative, Katz declared, “The Jenin Refugee Camp will not be what it was.”
At least 3,240 families fled from Jenin Refugee Camp yesterday. In a brief report, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) noted that a series of detonations rendered the camp inhabitable. “The basics of life are gone,” UNRWA’s statement partly read.
Of course Israel bears direct responsibility for the ethnic cleansing. But what is the PA actively doing to oppose further depletion of Palestine? Nothing. On the contrary, the PA’s eagerness to emulate Israel’s tactics of targeting the Palestinian Resistance led to an operation of its own, knowing that without the Resistance, Palestinians were left with no protection whatsoever. And so, when Abbas calls upon the UN Security Council to intervene, it is not doing so from a principled position. It calls upon the Security Council as an exonerated accomplice that knows its pleas only serve propaganda purposes, and enrich the opportunity for the international community to extend time for Israel’s ethnic cleansing plans.
What the PA is doing to the Palestinians is vile. The only protection Palestinians can rely on comes from the Palestinian Resistance. Not the international community, and definitely not the PA. Since the genocide in Gaza, Israeli ministers have been adamant about extending the same tactics to the Occupied West Bank. Instead of finding ways to protect Palestinians, the PA rendered them more vulnerable to displacement. An illegitimate representation, backed by international funding, harming the interests of the indigenous people themselves. The PA has much to answer for, particularly for calling out the Palestinian people’s steadfastness while crushing it by all means possible.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250204-the-pa-renders-the-palestinians-vulnerable-to-israels-ethnic-cleansing/
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How Far Will Trump Go For Israel?
February 4, 2025
By Rabia Ali
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become the first foreign leader to meet with US President Donald Trump today, a visit that comes amid ongoing uncertainty over the Gaza ceasefire and Israel’s escalating violence in the occupied West Bank. How far will Trump go for Israel?
While Trump and Netanyahu — the latter the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over war crimes in Gaza — have long shared a close relationship, experts suggest that the dynamics between them may be shifting. According to Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel with the International Crisis Group (ICG), Netanyahu’s political standing has weakened considerably since the last time he met Trump.
“This is Trump’s second term, and this is Netanyahu coming in after having lost a lot of popularity within Israel and coming in as a weaker leader; somebody who promised to destroy Hamas, and now we see that he’s been kind of forced by Trump to enter a ceasefire deal without having achieved those war objectives,” Zonszein told Anadolu.
The meeting comes at a crucial time, Zonszein added, as Netanyahu struggles to keep his fragile coalition together by making promises that he cannot deliver, which could create tensions in his talks with Trump. “There’s going to be tensions on that level, and I think they also have obviously different ideas of how to move forward on certain issues, whether it’s in Gaza or on Iran.” However, she added that Netanyahu is likely to try to align himself with Trump’s priorities as much as possible.
Political scientist and former Israeli army officer Ahron Bregman expects the meeting to be outwardly friendly but tense behind the scenes.
“What we will see in Washington when Trump and Netanyahu meet is a lot of smiles and handshaking,” he said. “Behind the scenes, however, it will be brutal. Netanyahu never counted on Biden, but he is wary of Trump, as the president is unpredictable. They don’t see eye to eye. Netanyahu wants the Gaza war to continue, while Trump wants a deal with Saudi Arabia. For an agreement with the Saudis, Trump needs to end the Gaza war.”
One of the most pressing issues on the agenda will be the status of the ceasefire in Gaza and whether Israel will resume its deadly war, which has killed or wounded around 160,000 Palestinians and left the enclave in ruins.
Before departing for the US, Netanyahu delayed sending his negotiating team to Qatar for talks on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, choosing to wait until after his meeting with Trump, according to Israeli media reports.
Analysts believe that Trump will exert heavy pressure on Netanyahu to advance the ceasefire process, which will lead to the release of more Israeli hostages while also paving the way for an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.
Zonszein reiterated that Trump is eager to move past the conflict in Gaza and focus on other regional and domestic issues, including Israel-Saudi Arabia normalisation. “Trump put a lot of political capital behind the ceasefire deal,” she explained, “so he clearly wants it to happen.”
However, she pointed out that Trump has also suggested controversial ideas, such as transferring Palestinians from Gaza, an idea that aligns with the Israeli far right’s objectives. “So, what Trump wants is to end the war and remove Hamas from power,” she said. “Netanyahu can probably live with that, if there’s actually a way to get Hamas out of power in Gaza, which I think is highly unrealistic.”
Despite Trump’s pressure, Netanyahu has worked actively against the ceasefire, as his political survival depends on continuing the war, said Zonszein. “The question is how much Trump is going to push him, and what he can bring back to his coalition members, specifically the finance minister [far-right extremist Bezalel Smotrich].”
Another major topic expected to be discussed behind closed doors is Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and the possibility of annexation. Netanyahu’s government has increased settlement activity and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, while also openly expressing its ambition to annex parts of the territory.
Responding to a question from reporters in the Oval Office, he said: “Well, I’m not going to talk about that. It certainly is a small country in terms of land. Actually, it’s a pretty small piece of land, and it’s amazing that they’ve been able to do what they’ve been able to do. When you think about it, it’s a lot of good smart brain power, but it is a very small piece of land, no question about it.”
Zonszein believes that the issue will be addressed during the Trump-Netanyahu meeting, although it may not take centre stage. “It’ll be discussed in some way, obviously. Israel has really increased its violence and raids in the West Bank since the minute that the Gaza ceasefire went into effect, and this government in Israel has a very clear agenda of annexing the West Bank.”
She also noted that several key figures in Trump’s administration – such as Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik – are strong supporters of Israeli settlements and annexation. “The question is how much that will play a role in Trump’s bigger plan with Saudi normalisation, because there’s no way that he can move on Saudi normalisation while giving Israel the West Bank. That’s just not going to work.”
While the ICG analyst believes that West Bank annexation is not currently a priority for Trump, she warned that Israel has already been annexing the territory in practice.
Netanyahu is also grappling with mounting domestic challenges, including pressure from his far-right allies to resume the Gaza war and threats from Orthodox Jewish groups. Last week, the leader of Israel’s Shas Party threatened to bring down Netanyahu’s government if he did not address the issue of military exemptions for Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews within the next two months.
Former army officer Bregman, however, argued that Netanyahu’s primary concern is his political survival. “What is on Netanyahu’s mind is his political survival. That’s his priority. To preserve his coalition, Netanyahu needs the Gaza war to continue, as this is what his far-right coalition partners insist upon.”
Finally, Trump and Netanyahu are expected to discuss the future governance of Gaza. According to Bregman, both leaders will emphasise the need to remove Hamas from power, but their strategies will differ.
“Trump will want to see Hamas toppled not by direct war, but by promoting his idea of transferring Gazans from the Strip to other places, something which will never work,” he said. “He will also suggest introducing elements from the Palestinian Authority [PA] to the Strip, something which Netanyahu is already implementing, although he won’t admit it. He has agreed to Abu Mazen’s [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] people operating the Rafah crossing.”
“There’s no real plan on the Israeli side,” she insisted. “What is starting to happen in the crossings is that Palestinian Authority officials are beginning to participate in running them, so, de facto, there’s no other alternative.”
She also emphasised that Hamas remains intact in Gaza, leaving no clear alternative for governance. As far as Trump is concerned, the analyst added that the US president is putting out a lot of ideas, but his actual plan remains unclear, while Israel still wants to maintain control over the buffer zone it created and remain the de facto security force in Gaza.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250204-how-far-will-trump-go-for-israel/
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Egypt’s Options for the Displacement of Palestinians from Gaza
February 4, 2025
By Mahmoud Hassan
US President Donald Trump’s insistence that Egypt and Jordan will accept displaced Palestinians from the Gaza Strip raises significant concerns about a potential deal being negotiated behind closed doors to facilitate their forced displacement. In other words: ethnic cleansing. The final details of such a deal may not yet be fully formed, especially given the official rejection by the six-party Arab meeting in Cairo last Saturday. Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE concluded their meeting with a call for the US administration to pursue the moribund two-state solution.
Let’s be clear, though. The displacement plan is not a direct consequence of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October, 2023, or the subsequent genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. Ethnic cleansing has been on the table since the 1940s, although attempts have failed repeatedly.
It is a concern, however, that Trump’s rhetoric this time was stated with immense confidence and an implicit threat. “We do a lot for them [Egypt and Jordan],” he said last Thursday, “and they will do this.” Rebuilding Gaza, added the US president, will take 15 years.
Trump reiterated his statement on Friday, reported Reuters: “Jordan and Egypt will accept people from Gaza. I heard someone say they wouldn’t, but I think they will. I’m confident they will.”
He has already offered Egypt incentives by exempting it, along with Israel, from the US freeze on aid to countries worldwide.
The US president may resort to courting his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, with an official invitation to the White House, a package of financial assistance from Gulf nations, economic and military deals, and the potential write-off of part of Egypt’s external debt (which stands at a staggering $153 billion). These incentives could serve to soften Cairo’s stance.
Egyptian opposition figures warn that there may be undisclosed negotiations taking place, with concerns that Al-Sisi could leverage the situation for his own benefit, using it to solidify his grip on power and push for more constitutional amendments allowing a fourth presidential term and an extension of his rule until 2036.
Fuelling these suspicions is the reality that the Egyptian president faces a significant internal crisis due to failed economic policies and dwindling public support. Moreover, regional and Western actors fear that his regime might collapse as that of Bashar Al-Assad did in Syria. This gives Washington leverage, allowing it to hint at backing a suitable alternative to prevent instability in Egypt; such pressure could influence Al-Sisi’s stance.
Egypt’s response appears inconsistent and disjointed across multiple levels. On one hand, Al-Sisi personally declared Egypt’s rejection of Palestinian displacement during a press conference with Kenyan President William Ruto in Cairo. He described such displacement as an injustice in which Egypt could not participate, reiterating that the solution lies in establishing a Palestinian state with historical rights, based on the pre-June 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
These demonstrations were coordinated with security agencies, involved pro-government parties and lawmakers from both parliamentary chambers, and featured slogans condemning the displacement plan. At the same time, the Egyptian authorities denied permission to the Civil Democratic Movement (a coalition of liberal and leftist parties) to organise a protest outside the US Embassy in Cairo against the same issue.
And last month, the Cairo regime renewed the detention of 173 young Egyptians for an additional 45 days pending investigation, following their participation in pro-Palestine demonstrations on 20 October, 2023.
Despite this public stance, Al-Sisi appeared to be courting Trump again, stating that the American president’s leadership could usher in a “golden age of peace” in the Middle East. According to a statement from the Egyptian presidency, Al-Sisi emphasised that the international community was counting on Trump’s ability to reach a historic and lasting peace agreement that would resolve the long-standing conflict in the region.
Jamal Al-Masri, an expert in Palestinian affairs, noted that the Egyptian government is attempting to manufacture a facade of popular support for its position. This, he argued, is meant to send a message to Washington that accepting the displacement plan could destabilise the Egyptian regime, threaten national security and provoke public unrest that might even lead the military to remove Al-Sisi from power.
Although Egypt’s options are limited, they are not non-existent. One possibility is reviving the idea of relocating displaced Palestinians to the Negev Desert (12,500 square kilometres), which is occupied by Israel and borders Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Al-Sisi actually suggested this plan at the onset of the Gaza war in October 2023.
A political analyst who requested anonymity warned that an undeclared displacement operation could take place. Egypt might quietly accept a certain number of displaced Gazans as “refugees”, integrating them in a manner similar to that of Syrian and Sudanese refugees already in the country. Another scenario could involve receiving injured Palestinians and their companions under humanitarian pretexts, without ensuring their return to Gaza. Additionally, Gazan families might be resettled informally in Rafah and El-Arish within Egypt.
Adam Boehler, the US special envoy for hostage affairs, has urged Egypt and Jordan to present alternative solutions if they reject the displacement plan. He noted that Trump has proposed what he considers a suitable option for both countries but remains open to other alternatives.
Egypt is unlikely to escalate tensions or confront the US administration directly, especially given the strong support that Trump provided to Al-Sisi during his first term (2017-2020), when he famously referred to him as “my favourite dictator.”
Egypt could, however, manoeuvre out of US pressure by leveraging its role as a mediator in negotiating a ceasefire agreement and securing a hostage exchange deal between Israel and Hamas. Cairo’s strategic importance to Israel, which is acknowledged openly by Israeli officials, also provides it with some diplomatic leverage.
It could also further consolidate Arab and Islamic opposition to the displacement plan and seek backing from global powers such as Russia and China. Additionally, the popular rejection of displacement, both within Egypt and among Palestinians, could be used to pressure Washington into reconsidering its approach.
A particularly significant card Egypt could play is the potential collapse of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty if forced displacement to Sinai proceeds. Such a scenario might provoke Palestinian attacks from Egyptian territory on Israeli targets, significantly escalating tensions. This is an outcome that Washington would certainly wish to avoid.
Observers also suggest strengthening the Palestinian Authority’s control over Gaza, accelerating reconstruction efforts, and possibly deploying an international or Arab peacekeeping force to separate Gaza from Israeli settlements.
Ultimately, realpolitik will likely shape upcoming negotiations between Egypt and the US. Both Trump and Al-Sisi share an interest in removing Hamas from power, ensuring Israeli security and preventing a repeat of the 7 October incursion. However, for Egypt to agree to a displacement plan, it would require massive concessions that Al-Sisi might be unwilling, or unable, to provide due to the significant political, security and strategic risks involved.
With upcoming diplomatic engagements, including Jordan’s King Abdullah’s visit to Washington next week, and ongoing behind-the-scenes negotiations between Egyptian and US officials, the coming days are bound to bring new developments. The outcome will depend on how far Trump is willing to push his carrot-and-stick approach.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250204-egypts-options-for-the-displacement-of-palestinians-from-gaza/
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