Rumor has it Egypt will take in 100k Palestinians from Gaza, Officials deny
ALBAWABA – Rumor has it Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi is considering accepting the United States’ (US) offer to relieve Egypt of billions of dollars’ worth of debts in exchange for taking in displaced Palestinians from Gaza.
The Telegraph last month reported US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Egypt in an attempt to convince Sisi to take in some 300 thousand displaced Palestinians.
Unnamed sources at the time told the Telegraph they may take in 100 thousand, but no more.
Cairo suspects the displaced Palestinians could seek asylum in the country’s Sinai peninsula as a result of the ongoing Israeli onslaught on Gaza.
Rumor has it Egypt is considering US debt relief in exchange for taking in hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian from Gaza - Shutterstock
“We cannot allow all 300,000 to enter,” the unnamed security source said. “We will have to allow some in … but no more than 100,000 should be allowed.”
However, Egypt’s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said on Thursday that his nation was not offered any help with its debts by the US and Israel in return for taking in Palestinians.
Sisi and other officials have strenuously ruled out any notion of Gazans being relocated to Sinai, Bloomberg reported. Such a move may both pose a security threat and undermine Palestinian hopes for their own state, the president reportedly said.
Meanwhile, Egypt is going through the worst economic crisis in years and is cash-strapped and debt-strained, with billions payable in debt service alone in 2024.
Rumor has it: Egypt was offered debt relief in exchange for temporarily housing Palestinians from Gaza
According to Egyptian newspaper Ahram Online, Egypt is required to pay $29.23 billion in external debt service in 2024, $19.43 billion in 2025 and $12.11 billion and $7.5 billion in 2027 and 2028.
Egypt’s total external debt reached $165.36 billion at the end of March 2023, as the country’s foreign asset deficit reached $25.92 billion in August.
Rumor has it US will relieve Egyptian debts worth dozens of billions if Sisi lets in displaced Palestinians from Gaza, temporarily - Shutterstock
In the meantime, the country is currently under review for a $3 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
For the past 10 years, the Egyptian military has been fighting an Islamist insurgency in northern Sinai.
Authorities have evicted between 100,000 and 150,000 people from the region, as fighting there destroyed houses, farms, and infrastructure, the Telegraph reported.
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement in Gaza, has also ruled out any deal for the evacuation of Palestinians into Egypt.
IEA slams ‘unneeded’ crude, gas field investments as oil prices swing on supply-demand concernsEgypt and Jordan have both publically and definitively rejected the notion of resettling Palestinians, even if temporarily, as Israeli authorities claim. Jordan has even gone as far as to say that the forceful expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, or the creation of any such conditions that would force Palestinians out of Gaza, will be considered an act of war.
