Gaza war is putting Egyptian-Israeli relations to the test

Egypt and Israel have been at peace since 1979, thanks to the Camp David peace agreement — a consistent pillar of stability in the Middle East. 

But the war in Gaza is putting some serious strain on that relationship. 

The tipping point came last week when Israel gave Egypt just a few hours notice before sending troops into the eastern outskirts of Rafah, and then seizing control of the border crossing there, according to Mirette Mabrouk. She’s an Egypt expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington. 

Images of Israeli flags flying at that border terminal set off alarm bells back in Cairo. That’s when the Egyptian government decided to halt cooperation with Israel for aid shipments going into Rafah.

“I can tell you flat out — the Egyptians are not happy about this. They’re livid,” Mabrouk said.

“The Egyptians have felt that the Israelis have consistently taken them for granted, underestimated their position, underestimated the costs of this to the Egyptians.” 

Egypt is now considering a downgrade in its relations with Israel, Mabrouk added. 

The doomsday scenario for Egypt is seeing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza fleeing over the border into Egyptian territory. 

That has not happened yet. 

But after more than a million displaced people crowded into Rafah, the Israeli military is now conducting operations in and around the city, pushing some 350,000 Gaza residents to relocate yet again. 

And aid groups say famine is looming in parts of the territory. 

On Tuesday, Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign minister, wrote on the social media platform X that, “The world places the responsibility for the humanitarian situation on Israel, but the key to preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now in the hands of our Egyptian friends.”

The World submitted an interview request to Israel’s foreign ministry. A spokesperson responded by pointing to Katz’s recent statement on X and said the ministry is not commenting on relations with Egypt at this time. 

Amr Hamzawy, the director of the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that blaming Egypt for the shortage of humanitarian aid in Gaza is a misleading version of reality. 

“The fact of the matter is that Israel has different crossings with Gaza that can be used for getting humanitarian aid in,” Hamzawy said. 

Those crossings have been closed for significant amounts of time, he added. Secondly, he said Egypt only halted cooperation at Rafah last week, after the Israeli military moved in. 

“Now, Egypt cannot let humanitarian aid in if military operations are still happening in Rafah right at the crossing, because it puts in harm’s way the lives of humanitarian aid workers, and there were incidents where humanitarian aid workers were killed,” Hamzawy said. 

In early April, seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli military strike. 

Egypt’s foreign minister weighed in on social media Tuesday as well, saying that Israel is, “solely responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe currently endured by Palestinians in Gaza.”

On Wednesday, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz published a story that said Israeli officials are concerned that Egypt might stop participating in negotiations with Hamas for a ceasefire and release of hostages. 

But Hamzawy said he doubts that the Egyptians are going to walk away from that role as mediator between Israel and Hamas just yet.  

“I believe that from a national security perspective, Egypt will continue to try to communicate while signaling to Israel that what is happening right now is not acceptable,” he said. 

The Egyptian government is no fan of Hamas. It’s the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — which is banned in Egypt.  

But Hamzawy said that doesn’t mean the Egyptians are OK with the Israeli military controlling the only border crossing it shares with Gaza. 

“Egypt is adamant, and I believe this is not only an Egyptian position but an Arab position, that what is needed is to restore Palestinian presence, that this should not be the pretext for an Israeli re-occupation of the Gaza Strip,” Hamzawy said. 

The Israeli government has said it is opposed to giving the Palestinian Authority a role in postwar Gaza — and that’s another point of contention with Egypt. 

“This is a particularly difficult time in Egyptian-Israeli relations,” said Samer Shehata, a professor of Middle East politics at The University of Oklahoma. 

“I don’t think that the Camp David treaty is about to collapse or there’s going to be a declaration of war or anything like that, but it is quite rare for the Egyptians to take the measures that they’ve done recently.”   

On Sunday, Egypt came out in support of South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice that brings charges of genocide against Israel for what it’s doing in Gaza. 

Shehata said that’s more of a symbolic move at this point. 

It is worth noting that since the start of the war in Gaza, Egypt has not recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv.