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Egypt Warns Against Liquidating Palestinian Cause, Asserts Displacement as 'Red Line'

Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike (Reuters)
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Egypt Warns Against Liquidating Palestinian Cause, Asserts Displacement as 'Red Line'

Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians return to their homes as they walk near houses destroyed in an Israeli strike (Reuters)

Egypt renewed its categorical rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians, stating that this is "a red line," which it will not allow to be crossed.

Egypt's Commander-in-Chief and Minister of Defense Mohamed Zaki warned on Monday that the current escalations in the Gaza Strip aim at "imposing a reality that leads to the liquidating of the Palestinian cause."

Speaking at the Egypt Defense Expo (EDEX 2023) in Cairo, Zaki said peace eventually must have a "power to protect it."

Earlier, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi affirmed his country's rejection of the "forced displacement" of Gazans, stressing that Egypt will not allow the issue to be settled at the expense of neighboring countries.

Last Saturday, Sisi met with US Vice President Kamala Harris in Dubai on the sidelines of the UN Climate Conference (COP28). Egypt and the US categorically rejected the coerced displacement of the Palestinians, the forced transfer from Gaza or the West Bank, and the siege imposed on Gaza.

On Monday, Sisi witnessed the inauguration of EDEX 2023 for defense and military industries and inspected several pavilions in the exhibition.

Minister Zaki said the exhibition is an important global event under the patronage of the President, coinciding with the current conflicts and wars that threaten regional and international security and stability.

Egypt continues to aim to unite efforts and end conflicts seeking to establish peace, said Zaki, noting that the exhibition is a place for exchanged experiences to enhance capabilities and develop relations between countries in defense and military industries.

He also asserted that it aims to protect the pillars of common national security and deepen the partnership and cooperation with friendly countries in all military fields.

The Minister also stressed that the armed forces will remain a guardian of the nation's security and stability, seeking to defeat any aggression against Egypt.

Meanwhile, Egypt's Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, and its EU and NATO representative, Badr Abdel-Aty, confirmed that Egypt categorically rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip inside or outside its territory, asserting it was a red line that will not be crossed.

Abdel-Aty told the "Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Persons" that Egypt adopted a comprehensive approach to dealing with migrants that includes security, development, economic, and social aspects to address the root causes.

The conference is organized by the European Commission to enhance international cooperation in combating migrant smuggling.

The ambassador said his country hosts about nine million refugees, who enjoy essential services like Egyptian citizens.

Egypt has been receiving hundreds of thousands of Sudanese since the outbreak of the recent crisis.

Last month, Egypt criticized Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who supported a call by two Knesset members, Danny Danon (Likud) and Ram Ben-Barak (Yesh Atid), who wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial that Western countries should accept Gazan families who expressed a desire to relocate.

Smotrich said it was a voluntary migration plan for the refugees of Gaza.

"I welcome the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world," Smotrich said in a statement.

"This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the entire region after 75 years of refugees, poverty, and danger."

He said an area as small as the Gaza Strip without natural resources could not survive alone and added: "The State of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza."

Last Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed that the policy of forced displacement remains a goal for Israel "as it seeks to drive Palestinians from their land by making life in the Gaza Strip impossible."

Shoukry was speaking at the Joint Press Encounter by the Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit as part of a periodic briefing session held by the UNSC on the situation in the Gaza Strip.

The Minister stated that what is happening in the Gaza Strip met with a similar policy in the West Bank that forcibly displaces its residents, whether through unleashing settler violence or demolition operations, evictions, and military incursions into West Bank cities.

He noted that the recent developments were in addition to the annexation of land through systematic settlement operations that cemented the illegitimate occupation.

Furthermore, Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides will visit Egypt and Jordan on Tuesday as part of an initiative to establish a humanitarian aid corridor to Israeli-besieged Gaza, reported Reuters.

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Arab World

Lancet Study Estimates Gaza Death Toll 40% Higher Than Recorded

Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Lancet Study Estimates Gaza Death Toll 40% Higher Than Recorded

Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Research published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday estimates that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war was around 40 percent higher than recorded by the Palestinian territory's health ministry.

The number of dead in Gaza has become a matter of bitter debate since Israel launched its military campaign against Hamas in response to the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.

Up to June 30 last year, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported a death toll of 37,877 in the war.

However, the new peer-reviewed study used data from the ministry, an online survey and social media obituaries to estimate that there were between 55,298 and 78,525 deaths from traumatic injuries in Gaza by that time, AFP reported.

The study's best death toll estimate was 64,260, which would mean the health ministry had under-reported the number of deaths to that point by 41 percent.

That toll represented 2.9 percent of Gaza's pre-war population, "or approximately one in 35 inhabitants," the study said.

The UK-led group of researchers estimated that 59 percent of the deaths were women, children and the elderly.

The toll was only for deaths from traumatic injuries, so did not include deaths from a lack of health care or food, or the thousands of missing believed to be buried under rubble.

AFP is unable to independently verify the death toll.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said that 46,006 people had died over the full 15 months of war.

In Israel, the 2023 attack by Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel has repeatedly questioned the credibility of the Gaza health ministry's figures, but the United Nations have said they are reliable.

- 'A good estimate' -

The researchers used a statistical method called "capture-recapture" that has previously been used to estimate the death toll in conflicts around the world.

The analysis used data from three different lists, the first provided by the Gaza health ministry of the bodies identified in hospitals or morgues.

The second list was from an online survey launched by the health ministry in which Palestinians reported the deaths of relatives.

The third was sourced from obituaries posted on social media platforms such as X, Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp, when the identity of the deceased could be verified.

"We only kept in the analysis those who were confirmed dead by their relatives or confirmed dead by the morgues and the hospital," lead study author Zeina Jamaluddine, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told AFP.

The researchers scoured the lists, searching for duplicates.

"Then we looked at the overlaps between the three lists, and based on the overlaps, you can come up with a total estimation of the population that was killed," Jamaluddine said.

Patrick Ball, a statistician at the US-based Human Rights Data Analysis Group not involved in the research, has used capture-recapture methods to estimate death tolls for conflicts in Guatemala, Kosovo, Peru and Colombia.

Ball told AFP the well-tested technique has been used for centuries and that the researchers had reached "a good estimate" for Gaza.

Kevin McConway, a professor of applied statistics at Britain's Open University, told AFP there was "inevitably a lot of uncertainty" when making estimates from incomplete data.

But he said it was "admirable" that the researchers had used three other statistical analysis approaches to check their estimates.

"Overall, I find these estimates reasonably compelling, he added.

- 'Criticism' expected from both sides -

The researchers cautioned that the hospital lists do not always provide the cause of death, so it was possible that people with non-traumatic health problems -- such as a heart attack -- could have been included, potentially leading to an overestimate.

However, there were other ways that the war's toll could still be underestimated.

The study did not include missing people. The UN humanitarian agency OCHA has said that around 10,000 missing Gazans are thought to be buried under rubble.

There are also indirect ways that war can claim lives, such as a lack of healthcare, food, water, sanitation or the spread of disease. All have stricken Gaza since October 2023.

In a contentious, non-peer-reviewed letter published in The Lancet in July, another group of researchers used the rate of indirect deaths seen in other conflicts to suggest that 186,000 deaths could eventually be attributed to the Gaza war.

The new study suggested that this projection "might be inappropriate due to obvious differences in the pre-war burden of disease" in Gaza compared to conflicts in countries such as Burundi and East Timor.

Jamaluddine said she expected that "criticism is going to come from different sides" about the new research.

She spoke out against the "obsession" of arguing about death tolls, emphasizing that "we already know that there is a lot of high mortality.”