President: Israel’s reaction to Hamas attack turned into collective punishment of Gaza

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has stressed that Israel’s reaction to Hamas October 7 attack exceeded the limits of self defence and turned into collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Receiving Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Cairo Sunday, President Sisi referred to the current crisis between the Israeli and the Palestinian sides as “unprecedented” “requiring from us to work with strength and determination to contain it and curb its repercussions,” according to a video footage released by the Egyptian Presidency spokesman. President Sisi also underscored thorough denunciation and rejection of harming civilians, regardless of which side they belong to. This has always been “our stance and the role we have been keen on” since the peace accord between Egypt and Israel, President Sisi said. He also recalled Egypt’s positive role in all the crises that have erupted between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Over five rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas, up to 12,500 Palestinian civilians were killed, compared to 2,700 Israelis, about 1,500 during the ongoing one, Sisi said. Up to 100,000 Palestinians were injured, and about 12,000 Israelis were also injured. Up to 2,500 Palestinian children were killed, compared to 150 Israeli ones, the president said. Any delay in finding a solution to the present crises will lead to the fall of more victims, the president said. President Sisi added that he considers the current crisis a huge one, adding that Israel’s reaction has gone beyond the right to self-defence and turned into collective punishment of the Gaza Strip, inhabited by 2.3 million Palestinians. The president emphasised that what happened nine days ago is doubtlessly “huge and hard… and we condemn it,” but there has been an accumulation of cases of fury and hatred as a result of the absence of a prospect for resolving the Palestinian cause in more than forty years. The president stressed that Egypt has been exerting all efforts to contain the current situation and prevent other parties from entering the conflict. President Sisi also noted that it has never happened in the Arab and Muslim lands that the Jews were targeted, “neither in their old, nor modern history.” Perhaps this has occurred in Europe or Spain, but in our Arab and Islamic countries this has never happened,” President Sisi said. The US Secretary of state has been on a Middle East tour that took him to Israel, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia before arriving in Cairo Sunday, and is due to go back to Israel today for further discussions with Israeli leaders, according to a State Department spokesperson.