The New Arab / March 21, 2025
Egypt has categorically denied media reports that it will temporarily absorb 500,000 Palestinians from Gaza into the North Sinai.
Egypt has strongly denied media reports that it will temporarily relocate half a million Gazans to the northern Sinai region as part of Donald Trump’s highly controversial plan for the Gaza Strip.
Cairo’s State Information Service said in a statement on Friday that “these false allegations are fundamentally and completely inconsistent with Egypt’s firm and principled position of absolute rejection of any attempt to forcibly or voluntarily displace our Palestinian brothers”.
It followed a report in the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, widely carried in Israeli media, that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had signalled his willingness to absorb Gazans in recent meetings held by Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Cairo insists that its position continues to be “based on the plan presented at the recent Cairo emergency Arab Summit to rebuild the Gaza Strip without a single Palestinian brother having to leave it”.
In public statements, Sisi has consistently rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that Egypt, along with Jordan, could permanently absorb Palestinian refugees as part of his plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza and transform it into an ‘Eastern Mediterranean Riviera’.
At an Arab League summit held in Cairo in early March, Egypt put forward its plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by 17 months of ruthless Israeli bombing and shelling.
Cairo has always stressed that this would not involve the displacement of Gaza’s residents, despite apparent attempts by the US and Israel to empty the Palestinian enclave of its inhabitants.
The proposal outlines the establishment of an independent committee of technocrats to administer Gaza for six months, after which control would be transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
The plan does not explicitly mention Hamas, instead stating that the future of all armed groups in Gaza would be addressed through a political process aimed at achieving a Palestinian state.
Israel and the US have both rejected the Egyptian plan, with Tel Aviv once again heavily bombing and besieging the Palestinian enclave killing hundreds in a matter of hours this week.
Egypt was the first Arab state to normalise relations with Israel but the issue remains highly controversial in the country, with the vast majority of Egyptians in solidarity with Palestinians.
