Report: Security chiefs visited Cairo, pledged Gazans won’t be pushed into Egypt
IDF chief Halevi, Shin Bet director Bar said to have discussed upcoming Rafah offensive with Egyptian counterparts, given fears refugees could pour across border
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar visited Cairo last week to offer assurances to Egyptian officials that any military offensive into Rafah will not push Palestinians across the border into Egypt, according to a report Monday.
The Axios news site report, citing two American officials, said the two senior Israeli officials met with their Egyptian counterparts to discuss Israel’s planning for the proposed offensive.
The IDF, Shin Bet, and Egyptian officials did not answer Axios’s questions on the matter.
Israel has vowed to move into Rafah to eliminate the last Hamas stronghold there. It also believes that some of the hostages and Hamas leaders are in Rafah. Earlier this month, special forces rescued two Israeli hostages from captivity in an apartment in the city.
The military has presented the war cabinet with its plan for the evacuation of Palestinian civilians from potential combat zones in Gaza’s southernmost city and its operational strategy going forward, the Prime Minister’s Office said Sunday.
The statement did not give any details about how or where the civilians would be moved.
There is widespread international opposition to the operation, given fears for the fate of more than 1 million displaced Palestinians who are sheltering in Rafah.
Egypt has also repeatedly warned that Israeli moves that force displaced Palestinians into Egypt could undermine the peace treaty between Jerusalem and Cairo.
Satellite images show it built a walled enclosure next to Gaza, in what is thought to be an effort to brace for the possible arrival of large numbers of refugees.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US media on Sunday that an Israeli military operation in Rafah could be “delayed somewhat” if a deal for a weeks-long truce between Israel and Hamas is reached, as mediators work to secure an outline for a pause in fighting and a release of hostages. But he vowed the offensive “will happen.”
“It has to be done because total victory is our goal and total victory is within reach — not months away, weeks away, once we begin the operation,” he told CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” adding that Jerusalem and Cairo were coordinating on the matter.
War erupted on October 7 when Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were murdered, most of them civilians. The terrorists also abducted 253 people of all ages who were taken as hostages to Gaza, where over half remain, not all of them alive.
Israel responded with a military offensive to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza and free the hostages.
