Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Ati on Monday condemned Israel’s “provocative policies,” saying it was spreading “lies” to divert attention from the failure of a Gaza ceasefire agreement and failed prisoner exchange.
Abdel-Atty’s comments came during a joint press conference held in Cairo with his Danish counterpart Lars Roque Rasmussen, broadcast by the Cairo News Channel.
Prime Minister Abdel-Atti responded to a reporter’s question by saying, “Israel is spreading lies to divert attention from its (failure) efforts to reach a prisoner exchange agreement in the Gaza Strip and implement a ceasefire in the Strip.”
“We have spent enormous amounts of money on installing security fences and destroying tunnels on the border with Gaza,” he said. “The closer we get to the Gaza agreement, the more we face (provocative policies) that have only one goal.” “I will do it,” he emphasized. “Further expansion”
Abdel-Atti did not reveal what he called “lies”, but Cairo announced Tuesday that it had rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement regarding the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to Gaza through a tunnel under the Philadelphia border axis.
Egypt stressed that Netanyahu’s statement was an attempt to thwart an Egypt-Qatar-US mediation agreement to end Israel’s 11-month-old war in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu insisted on continuing to occupy the Philadelphia Corridor on the border between Gaza and Egypt, but Cairo and Hamas refused and blocked the agreement.
Security officials, opposition parties and prisoners’ families have for months accused Netanyahu of sabotaging a deal with Hamas, fearing a collapse of the ruling coalition and loss of status, and have called for his resignation.
Far-right ministers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gbir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, are threatening to withdraw from the government and topple it if it accepts an agreement to end the war.
With US support, Israel has waged war in the Gaza Strip since October 7, leaving more than 135,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, mostly children and women, and more than 10,000 missing. Dozens of children.
