Egypt says that forced Palestinian displacement has a “red line” while Qatar calls it an “extension” of Israeli policy to violate Palestinian rights.
Posted on September 5, 2025
Egypt and Qatar expressed a strong conviction concerning the remarks of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concerning the displacement of the Palestinians, including by crossing Rafah.
On Friday, in a statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs described comments as part of “attempts in progress to extend climbing in the region and to perpetuate instability while avoiding responsibility for Israeli violations in Gaza”.
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In an interview with the Israeli telegram channel Abu Ali Express, Netanyahu said that there were “different plans to rebuild Gaza” and alleged that “half of the population wanted to leave Gaza”, saying that it was “not a mass expulsion”.
“I can open Rafah to them, but it will be closed immediately by Egypt,” he said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt reiterated its “categorical rejection of the displacement of force or in a coercive manner of the Palestinians of their land”.
“(Egypt) stresses that these practices represent a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and equivalent to war crimes that cannot be tolerated,” added the ministry.
The declaration confirmed that Egypt will never be an accomplice of such practices or act as a duct for Palestinian displacement, describing this as a “red line” which cannot be crossed.
“Collective punishment will not succeed”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar has also fiercely criticized Netanyahu’s remarks, calling them “extension of the Occupation approach to violate the rights of the Palestinian Fraternel people”.
“The policy of collective punishment practiced by the occupation against the Palestinians … will not succeed in forcing the Palestinian people to leave their land or to confiscate their legitimate rights,” he said in a statement.
He underlined the need for the international community of “uniting with determination to face the extremist and provocative policies of the Israeli occupation, in order to prevent the continuation of the cycle of violence in the region and its spread to the world”.
The War of Words comes as Egypt and Qatar continue to lead for mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel, seeking to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and facilitate the entrance to humanitarian aid in the coastal enclave.
Hamdah Salhut of Tel Aviv Tribune, reporting from Amman, said that Netanyahu’s comments were “incredibly controversial” because it was the Israeli government that stressed that “he wants the Palestinians to leave Gaza”.
“The condemnation of Qatar and Egypt said essentially to Israel, all of this is part of its broader plan, that Israel is the one who waged war in the Gaza Strip, that the continuation of crimes against the Palestinian people and the total closure of the border of Rafah is the reason why they are imprisoned in Gaza, because of anything else,” she said.
“It was Israel who created this policy alone.”