Egyptian source pushes back at ‘completely untrue’ report that Cairo could deploy troops to Gaza

A “high-ranking” Egyptian source pushes back on an earlier report that Cairo is willing to send troops to the Gaza Strip for a limited period of time after a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces. The source tells the Qatari-owned Al-Araby Al-Jadeed outlet that the reports are “totally and completely untrue.”

Egypt’s position is to not send any troops to Gaza in any form, stresses the high-ranking source, and will remain so in the future.

The previous report in the newspaper had indicated that Egyptian Army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Osama Askar told his Israeli counterpart and the US Central Command head that Egyptian troops operating under the UN would secure the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing as well as the other crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel and some points along the Gazan coast, but would not be present inside cities and residential areas.