Blinken meets el-Sisi in Egypt to discuss the fate of Palestinians in Gaza

Antony J. Blinken, the US Secretary of State, met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt in Cairo on Thursday to discuss the dire situation of Palestinian civilians in the war between Israel and Hamas and what will happen in Gaza when the conflict ends.

Mr. Blinken also planned to speak with Mr. el-Sisi about how to prevent the growing conflict in the region from escalating further, U.S. officials said. Iranian-backed militias have attacked American and Israeli forces, and the most pressing challenge to the United States is Yemen’s Houthis.

US officials say the Houthis have used Iranian-supplied drones, rockets and missiles to fire on commercial ships and US warships in the Red Sea, prompting Mr Blinken to declare on Wednesday that there would be “consequences”.

Mr Blinken met Mr el-Sisi at the presidential palace after landing from Tel Aviv in a US military C-17 plane.

Mr el-Sisi has insisted since the start of the war that Israel will not permanently expel the Palestinians. On Wednesday, he traveled to Aqaba, Jordan, to participate in a summit on the war convened by King Abdullah II. Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, also attended the summit, just hours after meeting Mr Blinken in Ramallah.

Arab leaders released a statement rejecting “any attempt to reoccupy parts of Gaza” by Israel and stressed that displaced Palestinians must be allowed to return home.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel last October tried to get Mr. Blinken to ask Mr. el-Sisi to accept Palestinian refugees since Egypt shares a border with Gaza. Since then, the Israeli army has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. And it has destroyed many of the buildings in the small coastal strip and issued evacuation orders, forcing most of the two million people there to seek temporary shelter in Gaza.

Some Israeli officials have suggested that Palestinians should not live near Gaza’s border with Israel, creating a security buffer zone that could help prevent another attack like the one on October 7, when Israeli authorities say Hamas attacked about killed 1,200 people. in southern Israel.

Last week, two far-right cabinet officials proposed a mass resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza. All neighboring countries have refused to allow Israel to drive refugees into their territory.

After a full day of meetings with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Mr. Blinken said at a news conference that he had urged Mr. Netanyahu to allow Palestinian citizens to return home as soon as conditions allowed. And he said it is US policy to ensure that Palestinians are not resettled outside Gaza.

He told reporters that Mr. Netanyahu had reassured him that it was not the Israeli government’s policy to expel Palestinians.