Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on Thursday for humanitarian relief to be provided to Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip.
Israel's massive bombardment and imposition of a total siege on Gaza has caused alarm in Egypt, which shares a border with the south of the Palestinian enclave and controls the main exit point for the 2.3 million residents living there.
Egypt has said it wants to facilitate the delivery of aid through its Rafah crossing, but has also signaled its rejection of Gaza residents being forced south across the border.
In a phone call with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, al-Sisi "stressed the need to guarantee the regularity of humanitarian services and relief to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip," the Egyptian president’s office said in a statement.
Sisi also informed Sunak of Egypt's "continuing efforts to push for the pursuit of calm and utmost restraint to prevent sliding into bloodshed, the price of which will be paid by more innocent people, and whose consequences will extend to the entire region", the statement said.
Israel, which is retaliating for a deadly incursion by Hamas gunmen into Israel, said on Thursday there would be no humanitarian break to its siege of Gaza until all its hostages were freed.
Egypt also said on Thursday it was directing international aid for Gaza to Al Arish airport in the north of the Sinai Peninsula.
The nearby Rafah crossing between Sinai and Gaza remained open, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that Egypt had asked Israel to avoid targeting the Palestinian side of the crossing after strikes that prevented normal operations there.
