File- Diaa Rashwan during the 6th session of the Board of Trustees of the National Dialogue on September 10, 2022- press photo
Jan 24,
2024. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Cairo.
Diaa
Rashwan, head of the State Information Service (SIS) announced that recent
remarks by Israeli officials, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about
alleged smuggling operations of weapons, explosives, ammunition, and their
components, into the Gaza Strip from Egyptian territory through alleged tunnels
are lies and groundless.
“These Israeli claims and lies aim to create a “legitimacy” through which it seeks to occupy the Philadelphia Axis (also known as the Salah al-Din Axis, which refers to a strip of land along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip) by violating the security agreements and protocols signed between Israel and Egypt. So, we strongly confirm that any Israeli move in this direction will lead to a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations,” Rashwan said in a statement on Monday.
“This
Egyptian red line joins the previous one, which Egypt has repeatedly declared,
which is the categorical rejection of forcibly or voluntarily displacing our
Palestinian brothers to Sinai. This line Israel will not be allowed to pass,”
he added.
He said
that the world knows about the tremendous efforts exerted by Egypt over the
past 10 years to get rid of tunnels along Egypt’s borders with Palestinian Gaza
and Israel, to achieve security and stability in Sinai and enhance security on
the border between Egyptian Rafah and the Gaza Strip. Egypt had suffered
greatly from these tunnels during the fierce confrontation with terrorist
groups in Sinai after the overthrow of the Brotherhood regime in June 2013
until 2020. These tunnels had represented a means for smuggling fighters and
weapons to Sinai to carry out terrorist operations that claimed the lives of
more than 3,000 martyrs from the army, police, and civilians, and more than
13,000 injured.
Rashwan
clarified Egypt had gotten rid of these tunnels by creating a 5-kilometer-long
buffer zone from the Egyptian city of Rafah to the border with Gaza, besides
destroying more than 1,500 tunnels.
Rashwan
added that Egypt has set up three barriers between Sinai and Palestinian Rafah
by expanding the zone to 14 kilometers and building a concrete 6-meter-high
wall above the ground and a 6-meter-deep barrier under the ground. So, any
smuggling operation is impossible, neither above ground nor underground.
“Egypt has
full sovereignty over its land, and has complete control over its entire
northeastern borders, whether with the Gaza Strip or with Israel,” he said.
“Surprisingly,
Israel speaks in this undocumented way about the allegations of arms smuggling
from Egypt to Gaza, while it [Israel] is the country that has military control
over the Strip and possesses the most modern and accurate means of reconnaissance
and monitoring; and its forces, settlements, and naval forces surround the
small strip on three sides and sends accusations to Egypt without any further
evidence.”
Israeli
claims that smuggling operations are carried out through trucks carrying aid
and goods to the Gaza Strip from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing
is an empty and ridiculous statement, because any truck entering the Gaza Strip
from this crossing must first pass through the Israeli-run Kerem Abu Salem
crossing, for inspection. Meanwhile, the recipients of this aid are the
Palestinian Red Crescent and United Nations relief organizations such as UNRWA,
which adds further evidence of the Israeli lies, Rashwan said.
He said
that the true aim of Israel’s claims is to justify its continuation of the
collective punishment, killing, and starvation of more than 2 million
Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip, which it [Israel] has practiced for 17
years.
“The
Israeli government must conduct serious investigations inside its army, state
agencies, and sectors of society, to search for those truly involved in
smuggling weapons to Gaza, from inside, for the purpose of profit,” he said.
“Egypt was
the initiative and agreed with Israel, in 2005 and 2021, to increase the size
of the border guard forces and capabilities in this border region in order to
secure the northeastern strategic border, out of respect for the peace treaty
with Israel, and so that the latter does not take any unilateral step on its
part,” he added.
Many of the
weapons currently inside the Gaza Strip are the result of smuggling from Israel
like M16 rifles and types of RPGs, as well as dual-use materials in the
military manufacturing of the military wings in the Gaza Strip. It is
sufficient to review what the Israeli media publishes about the investigations
taking place with members of the Israeli army, on the background of the
disappearance of weapons or their sale in the West Bank, and from there they
are sent to the Gaza Strip, he said.
“Speaking
of the West Bank, can Israeli officials, who are spreading lies against Egypt,
explain the source of the large quantities of weapons, ammunition and
explosives spread in various areas of the West Bank, according to their
official statements, in light of the full control of the occupation army over
it, and that it does not have any kind of border with Egypt? Then, they will
only find the same people involved, from their army, state agencies, and
sectors of society, in smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip for the purpose of
profit,” he continued.
The
information shows that most of the heavy weapons smuggling operations into the
Gaza Strip take place across the Mediterranean Sea, where its shores with Gaza
are completely controlled by the Israeli naval and air forces. This indicates
the same people involved in Israel, from its army, its state agencies, and
sectors of society, in weapons smuggling to Gaza for the purpose of profit,
Rashwan clarified.
It is worth
noting Israeli army revealed, during the current war, especially the video
ones, about the seizure of many weapons, missiles, and explosives manufacturing
workshops inside the tunnels in Gaza, which means that there is a high
possibility that a large part of the armament of Hamas and the Palestinian
factions will be manufactured locally and not through smuggling, said Rashwan.
“The
Israeli allegations and lies are a continuation of Israel's policy of escape
due to its successive failures in achieving its declared goals for the war on
Gaza. It [Israel] is looking for someone responsible outside of its area for
these failures, as it also did the same thing recently by accusing Egypt at the
International Court of Justice of being the one preventing and obstructing
Humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip, despite its full knowledge that Egypt
did not close the Rafah crossing on its part, even for a single moment,” he
said.
“The
arbitrary policies of successive Israeli governments have eliminated any
prospects for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue and encouraged the
separation of the Gaza Strip under the leadership of Hamas from the Palestinian
Authority, including turning a blind eye to the funding it receives and the
stifling siege of the Strip,” he continued.
“These
policies, for more than a decade and a half, are part of Netanyahu's strategy
to deepen the Palestinian division and ensure the separation of Gaza from the
West Bank to weaken the Palestinian Authority, and to have the justification to
refuse to enter into any negotiations on a two-state solution,” Rashwa added.
“Egypt's
full support and solidarity with the Palestinian cause is certain and realistic
without the slightest doubt, and is in line with Egypt’s official statute of
supporting the rights of the Palestinian people in their independent state with
East Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of June 4, 1967,” he said.
“Egypt's
popular and official solidarity and support for the Palestinian cause does not
conflict with securing our borders and preventing smuggling to and from
it. Supporting the Palestinian cause has many political ways that bear
fruit until the Palestinian people obtain their legitimate rights, which Egypt
has done publicly since the beginning of the recent crisis, and before that all
the time in support of the brotherly Palestinian people,” he continued.
“No doubt
that such [Israeli] false allegations do not serve the positive Egyptian
efforts made to resolve the crisis in Gaza, which has affected the entire
region and made it ripe for expanding the circle of conflict, the matter that
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi warned against repeatedly,” Rashwan said.
“In
conclusion, these false allegations do not serve the peace treaty that Egypt
respects. Egypt demands that the Israeli side to show its respect for it also,
and to stop making statements that would strain bilateral relations in light of
the current inflammatory conditions,” he added.
“Egypt
calls on everyone who talks about failure in protecting borders to stop making
these allegations because it [Egypt] has a strong army capable of protecting
its borders with all efficiency and discipline. Egypt will continue its natural
positive role to solve all the problems of the region, and these false
allegations will not succeed in dissuading Egypt from carrying out its
internal, regional and international responsibilities,” he said.
Egypt Today
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