Report: Israel fears Egypt will halt Hamas mediation role, as ties hit new low

Senior Israeli officials fear Egypt may cease mediating between Jerusalem and the Hamas terror group regarding a Gaza truce and hostage deal, warning that the military and intelligence cooperation between the countries will be harmed if the current crisis continues, according to Haaretz.

The report comes as Israel and Egypt accuse each other of hindering aid flow to Gaza, after Cairo said it will join South Africa’s “genocide” case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, and after Egyptian sources have threatened that a planned offensive in Rafah would endanger the 1979 peace accord between the countries.

“The current situation vis-a-vis Egypt is the worst that has been since the war began,” one unnamed official is quoted as saying.

One of the quoted officials says that while Cairo in the first months of the war understood Israel’s goals of toppling Hamas’s rule in Gaza, since the Rafah operation was launched, “they have been purposely acting to hinder us and to try and compel us to stop the war.” The official adds this is something that “never happened” in previous operations in Gaza.