Report: Netanyahu sought US pressure on Egypt to take in Gaza refugees, was rebuffed

At the start of the war in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Joe Biden whether he could pressure Egypt to accept some of the Strip’s population into its territory for the duration of the conflict, The Washington Post reports.

The American leader told Netanyahu that Cairo did not view this as an option, the report says, without citing sources.

Earlier this month Axios reported that Egypt has warned Israel and the US not to allow a situation in which displaced Palestinians flee from the Strip into the Sinai Peninsula. Such an eventuality could cause a “rupture” in Egypt-Israel relations, Cairo was said to warn.

Egypt’s concern, according to the Axios report, was that as the IDF operation expands, Israel will “push Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt — and not allow them to return after the war.”

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