Dermer lobbied for moving Gazans to Sinai during ‘tense’ meet with Egyptian official
PM’s confidant claimed Egyptian public less opposed to idea than its government, alarming Cairo, which has since sought to bring him to country to further make case against idea
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer held a “tense” meeting with a senior Egyptian official late last month in Jerusalem, during which the latter sought to convey Cairo’s fervent position against moving Gazans into the Sinai Peninsula, an Israeli official and a second source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.
The Egyptian official relayed that Cairo is alarmed by calls from Israeli politicians to push Palestinians into Gaza and stressed that Egypt views any such effort as an existential threat, the sources said.
According to the sources, Dermer responded by maintaining that the Egyptian people are not as opposed to taking in Gazans as the Egyptian government is.
Alarmed by the answer — in addition to disagreeing with it — Egyptian officials have since sought to arrange a meeting for Dermer with some of the country’s more senior leaders in Cairo in order to further make the case against the relocation of Palestinians into the Sinai.
While Egypt was hoping that the meeting would take place earlier this month, it has not yet been finalized, the sources said.
A spokesperson for Dermer said his office wouldn’t comment on private meetings.
Dermer was last in Cairo in January, quietly traveling there for meetings to discuss bilateral security coordination, the sources said.
The idea of moving Palestinians to Egypt is also being pushed by US President Donald Trump, who proposed that the US take over Gaza and relocate all of its roughly two million residents.
The idea was quickly rejected by Egypt, whose leader, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, has held off on meeting Trump at the White House, despite overtures by Washington to set up such a sit-down, during which he’d likely be cornered into offering public comments regarding Trump’s plan, the two sources told The Times of Israel.
Last month’s tense meeting in Jerusalem came against a backdrop of already simmering tensions between the governments of Israel and Egypt, the two sources said.
For the past several months, Israeli politicians have been raising in meetings with visiting US lawmakers allegations that Egypt is violating the peace treaty between the two countries by massing troops along the Gaza border.
Israel’s ambassador to the US also raised the issue during a meeting with the executives of US Jewish groups.
“Egypt is in very serious violation of our peace agreement in the Sinai. This is an issue that is going to come to the fore because it’s not tolerable,” Yechiel Leiter told the American Jewish leaders in a recording obtained by The Times of Israel.
“We have bases being built that can only be used for offensive operations, for offensive weapons — that’s a clear violation,” he said. “For a long time, it’s been shunted aside, and this continues. This is going to be an issue that we’re going to put on the table very soon and very emphatically.”
Leiter also accused Sissi’s family of profiting from the desperation of Palestinians seeking to flee the Gaza Strip and of duplicitously operating to benefit Hamas.
The comments angered Cairo, which raised them during the meeting last month with Dermer, the Israeli official and the second source familiar with the matter said.
Unlike Israel’s political leaders, the Israeli security establishment has not been voicing concern to counterparts in Cairo regarding Egypt’s military posture in the Sinai Peninsula, the two sources said.
Some have pointed to recently posted footage showing a large Egyptian tank presence in the Sinai, but those clips have not been verified, and an Israeli security official said the clips were not recent.
