GENEVA: An exodus of Gazans into Egypt must be "avoided at all costs”, and could be the "nail in the coffin” of a future peace process, the UN refugees chief said Friday. Nearly 1.5 million displaced Palestinians — more than half of Gaza’s population — are trapped in Rafah, seeking shelter in a sprawling makeshift encampment near the Egyptian border.
"The position of Egypt has been very clear. People should not go across the border. I think Egypt has very valid reasons,” Filippo Grandi told BBC television from the Munich Security Conference. "It would be catastrophic for Palestinians... to be displaced again. It would be catastrophic for Egypt from all points of view, and more important than anything else, a further refugee crisis would be almost the nail in the coffin of a future peace process already.”
Like many observers, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees believes that once Palestinians leave Gaza they will no longer be able to return — as happened in 1948 — something which would ruin the possibility of a two-state solution between the Zionist entity and the Palestinians. The war accompanying the creation of the Zionist entity in 1948 saw 760,000 Palestinians flee or forced from their homes. Millions of their descendants continue to live as refugees in neighboring countries.
"The old 1948 refugee crisis is an unresolved problem; if you add a dimension to that, you can say goodbye to a meaningful peace process,” said Grandi. "It has to be avoided at all costs.” Pressure has grown on Egypt to open its border to Palestinian civilians, as the Zionist entity plans to push ahead with a military operation in Rafah, seeking complete victory over Hamas. Grandi said his Geneva-based UNHCR agency was not involved in any preparations that Egypt might be making for if people cross the border.
But in any case, a Gazan refugee surge into Egypt "needs to be avoided and it can only be avoided if humanitarian aid can enter Gaza in significant quantities — but more important, if hostilities cease”, he said. Grandi said the plight of displaced people in Rafah was "absolutely dramatic”. "So I hope that the appeals by the entire international community for a ceasefire and access of humanitarian aid and the liberation of hostages are heeded by the parties; by (the Zionist entity), by Hamas.”
A US media report and an Egyptian human rights monitor said on Friday Egypt is constructing a walled camp in the Sinai Peninsula to receive displaced Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip. But the Zionist entity claimed it had no plans to move civilians there, as it prepares an offensive in Rafah.
The Wall Street Journal said an eight-square-mile (21-sq-km) "walled enclosure” was under construction on the Egyptian side of the border. The compound was part of "contingency plans” if ceasefire talks in Cairo failed and could accommodate more than 100,000 people, it added. The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian NGO, released a report this week that it said showed construction of the compound to receive Palestinian refugees "in the case of a mass exodus”.
AFP reviewed satellite pictures taken on Thursday of the area in northern Sinai, showing machinery building a wall along the Egypt-Gaza border. The area is highly secure and closed to journalists. A comparison of satellite photos taken on Feb 10 and Feb 15 shows land having been graded. North Sinai governor Mohamed Shousha has denied Egypt is preparing "an isolated area in Sinai” to receive refugees. The construction work was to assess houses destroyed during upheaval in recent years to "properly compensate” owners, he said Thursday.
The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights said two contractors told it construction firms had been tasked with building the gated area, "surrounded by seven-metre-high walls”. The site lies on the "rubble” of Egyptian homes "demolished” during the state’s war against Islamist insurgents in northern Sinai over the past decade, it said.
Sources in Sinai told AFP the area was being prepared in case of a breach of the Gaza border, which Egypt has fortified with additional walls and buffer zones since the Zionist entity’s war with Hamas began. "The area will be readied with tents” and humanitarian assistance would be delivered inside, said one source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Egypt, which controls the Rafah border crossing from Gaza, has repeatedly warned against any "forced displacement” of Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai desert. President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has said if that happened it could jeopardize the peace treaty Egypt signed with the Zionist entity in 1979.
The Zionist military is facing growing calls not to go into Rafah, because of fears it could lead to heavy civilian casualties and worsen an acute humanitarian crisis. In Tel Aviv on Friday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the Zionist entity had "no intention of evacuating Palestinian civilians to Egypt”. "We respect and value our peace agreement with Egypt, which is a cornerstone of stability in the region as well as an important partner,” he added.
Of military action in Rafah, Gallant said: "We are thoroughly planning future operations in Rafah, which is a significant Hamas stronghold.” He claimed operations would not target civilians, who are facing "unprecedented” levels of "near famine-like conditions”, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. – AFP