Egypt warns displacing Gazans a ‘red line,’ would be the end of the ‘Palestinian cause’

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty warns that the displacement of Gazans from the wartorn Gaza Strip would be a “red line” for Cairo, saying it would amount to the “liquidation of the Palestinian cause.”

“Displacement is a red line. We will not accept it, we will not participate in it. And we will not allow it to be happen,” Abdelatty says in a CNN interview aired Monday.

“There is no moral, ethical, legal, or political reason for [displacement],” he continues. “Those people are attached to their homeland. Why we should displace them from their homeland? This is one issue,” he says.

“Second issue, the displacement is a one-way ticket. I can assure you — those who will leave Gaza, they will never be allowed to go back to Gaza — and that [means] to have one objective, liquidation of the Palestinian cause. That will be the end of the Palestinian goal,” says Abdelatty.

The minister warns that “any kind of displacement would be a big risk and we will not allow any single party to risk our national security and our sovereignty… in our border.”

He also blames Israel for being “the main country which is blocking and putting restrictions on the flow of humanitarian and medical aid” into the Strip through the Rafah border crossing, and for having “a lack of political will” to reach a deal with Hamas that would end the war.

Egypt closed its border with Gaza after Israel captured the Rafah crossing.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s office declined to respond to Abdelatty’s remarks. The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed support for the large-scale emigration of Gazans — a policy endorsed by US President Donald Trump in February, though the American leader has since appeared to distance himself from it.

Netanyahu said Israel is in contact with “several countries” about taking in displaced civilians from the territory. Those countries are said to include Indonesia, Somaliland, Uganda, South Sudan and Libya, though no concrete decisions have reportedly been made.