Egypt Aims To Restore Regional Role With Gaza Mediation

Egypt aims to restore regional role with Gaza mediation

Cairo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th May, 2021 ) :Egypt is seeking to restore its regional clout by mediating between Israel and Hamas to douse the week-long massacres in Gaza that has claimed more than 200 lives of Palestinians.

In 2014, Egypt brokered a fragile ceasefire after a devastating weeks-long war between arch-foes Israel and Hamas, which rules the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

In the latest Israeli strikes, which entered its second week Monday have killed over 200 Palestinians and 10 people in Israel, officials on the two sides say. Hundreds more have been wounded.

The escalation has embarrassed Gulf states UAE and Bahrain which normalised diplomatic ties with Israel last year, putting Cairo in the diplomatic driving seat.

"In a region where normalising states are expanding their own relations with Israel, Egypt... has a vested interest utilising its geographic proximity to Gaza to leverage its diplomatic power," said Tareq Baconi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.

An Egyptian intelligence delegation reportedly on the ground in Israel and the Palestinian territories has boosted Cairo's hand as a peace-broker.

"The delegation is comprised of intelligence officials and has been there for several days to negotiate a ceasefire," Khaled Okasha, a member of Egypt's Supreme Council for Counter-Terrorism, told AFP.

Okasha, director of the state-affiliated Egyptian Centre for Strategic Studies, said he was optimistic about a breakthrough.

"Egypt has to be involved. There's no way around it -- literally and physically," said Michael Hanna, a senior fellow at the New York-based Century Foundation.

Israel has enforced a land and sea blockade on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas seized control of the impoverished territory, home to about two million Palestinians.

Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the enclave's only passage to the outside world not controlled by Israel.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi instructed authorities last week to open the crossing to allow wounded Gazans to be treated in Egyptian hospitals and to deliver aid.

"This is an opportunity to say not just to the US but to other regional parties that Egypt remains important, it's a necessary diplomatic player and that a ceasefire is going to go through Cairo," said Hanna.

He said popular support for the Palestinians on the streets of Cairo has emboldened Egypt's leadership to adopt a "harsher, more outspoken" line against Israel, despite their 1979 peace treaty.