How Gaza displacement could deepen Egypt’s already unbearable refugee burden

Special How Gaza displacement could deepen Egypt’s already unbearable refugee burden
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Demonstrators gather outside the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on January 31, 2025 to protest against a plan floated by US President Donald Trump to move Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan. (AFP)
Special How Gaza displacement could deepen Egypt’s already unbearable refugee burden
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People walk past trucks loaded with aid waiting to cross into Gaza from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on January 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 09 February 2025
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How Gaza displacement could deepen Egypt’s already unbearable refugee burden

How Gaza displacement could deepen Egypt’s already unbearable refugee burden
  • Host to refugees from Sudan, Syria, and elsewhere, Egypt faces new challenges as Trump proposes relocating Gazans
  • With inflation at 24.1 percent in December, experts warn more refugees would stretch Egypt’s economy and security

LONDON: Already host to almost 10 million migrants and refugees, Egypt now faces pressure to shelter hundreds of thousands of Gazans — a move Cairo deems unfair to the Palestinians and a potential threat to its economy and security.

US President Donald Trump has suggested that some 1.5 million people from the Palestinian enclave could be relocated to Egypt and Jordan — a plan that has met with opposition from both countries’ leaderships.

 

 

“Egypt views this proposal as an unacceptable liquidation of the Palestinian cause — something that neither Egyptians, Palestinians, nor other influential regional states would accept,” Hani Nasira, an Egyptian author and academic, told Arab News.

“It undermines the two-state solution and the peace agreements with Israel, which many regional countries have tied their engagement to.”

Beyond what this might mean for the Palestinians, Nasira also cited economic concerns for Egypt, especially if Gazans are not permitted to return. “Egypt hosts more than 9 million refugees and migrants who pose an economic burden and do not live in camps,” he said.

“Rather than treating displaced people as refugees or housing them in camps, Egypt has integrated them into society and considers them ‘guests,’ as President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has repeatedly stated.”




Sudanese brick makers work in an agricultural field in the capital Khartoum's district of Jureif Gharb on November 11, 2019. Egypt is home to more than 9 million foreign nationals who have fled conflict from their countries, and Egypt has integrated mnost of them into society and considers them ‘guests.’  (AFP)

Indeed, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has praised Egypt for its policy of placing displaced foreign nationals in host communities, “reflecting the government’s commitment to the Global Compact on Refugees’ principle of finding alternatives to camps.”

Egypt is a signatory to key international treaties defining refugee rights and state obligations, including the 1951 Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol, and the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention.

While official statistics show that Egypt hosts more than 9 million refugees and asylum-seekers, only 822,701 of them were registered with the UNHCR as of October. Access to many services typically requires being registered with the UNHCR or one of its partners.

REFUGEES & MIGRANTS IN EGYPT

• 4 million+ Sudanese

• 1.5 million+ Syrians

• 1million+ Yemenis

• 1 million+ Libyans

(Source: IOM)

According to UN figures, Egypt’s registered refugees originate from 59 nations, including Sudan, Syria, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Yemen, Somalia, and Iraq. As of October 2023, the Sudanese nationality was the largest group, followed by Syrians.

Sudan, which borders Egypt to the south, has been trapped in a state of conflict between rival military factions since April 2023, leading to one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes, displacing some 12 million people, both internally and externally.




In this photo taken on May 13, 2023, Sudanese fleeing war-torn Sudan are seen arriving at Qastal land port crossing between Egypt and Sudan. (AFP)

Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has devastated the capital Khartoum and other cities, shattering the nation’s health system and compounding outbreaks of once preventable diseases.

Domestic agriculture and supply chains have collapsed, leading to outbreaks of famine across the country. In Darfur and other areas, accounts of sexual violence and even genocide have emerged. Access issues and underfunding have hampered the humanitarian response.

Syria, meanwhile, has only recently emerged from more than a decade of civil war, which has displaced millions of refugees throughout the region and across the globe. Instability persists even after the toppling of the Bashar Assad regime, and swathes of the country remain in ruins.




This photo taken on January 4, 2018, shows Syrian refugees working at a restaurant in Egypt's second city of Alexandria. Egypt welcomed tens of thousands of people displaced since the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011. (AFP/File)

South Sudan and nations on the Horn of Africa have experienced some of the most extreme and least reported conflicts of recent years, including the Tigray war in Ethiopia, not to mention climate disasters including devastating floods and crippling drought.

Recent and ongoing conflicts in Libya, Yemen, and Iraq have likewise sent millions in search of safety and a route out of poverty in Egypt — already the Arab world’s most populous country — which has itself experienced instability and hardship.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said last year that Egypt hosted 40 percent of those fleeing Sudan, 1.5 million Syrian refugees since 2012, and expected to receive more Palestinians displaced from Gaza.

Since Israel mounted its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, in retaliation for the deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, nearly all of the enclave’s 2.2 million residents have been displaced from their homes at least once.




People fleeing from the Gaza Strip wait in the Egyptian part of the Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian enclave, on December 3, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)

As many as 100,000 Gazans managed to cross into Egypt before Israel captured the Rafah border crossing in May, according to Palestine’s Ambassador in Cairo Diab Al-Louh. Many lacked the documents needed to enroll children in school, open businesses, travel, or access health services.

Trump first floated the idea of relocating Gazans en masse on Jan. 25 and reiterated it the next day aboard Air Force One, saying he wanted the Palestinian enclave “just cleaned out” to start afresh after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was announced in mid-January.

On Feb. 4, he went even further, announcing plans for a US “takeover” of the Gaza Strip during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington D.C.




Demonstrators gather outside the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on January 31, 2025 to protest against a plan floated by US President Donald Trump to move Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan. (AFP)

Trump said he wanted the US to take a “long-term ownership position” and turn the Eastern Mediterranean territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Palestinians could be resettled away from Gaza, “in areas where the leaders currently say no,” he said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had already expressed concerns about the strain Egypt’s refugee burden is placing on the national budget and host communities, citing insufficient international support amid the growing number of displaced people.

During a Jan. 27 meeting with heads of three UN agencies in Geneva, Abdelatty reiterated Egypt’s call for a fairer and more sustainable distribution of responsibility, urging the UN International Organization for Migration to help manage migrant flows and strengthen Egypt’s capacity to host those it already had.

On Jan. 28, Abdelatty told the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights in Geneva that his country has shouldered a significant responsibility on behalf of the international community by hosting 10.7 million foreign nationals, including refugees and irregular migrants.

However, he said Egypt’s “capacity to accommodate and continue our efforts is at risk, especially given the insufficient international support relative to the pressures we are facing.”




Delegates pose for a group picture during a humanitarian conference for Gaza in Cairo on December 2, 2024, amid the continuing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

In April last year, Egypt’s Prime Minister Madbouly said hosting some 9 million refugees was costing his country approximately $10 billion per year, at a time when Egypt is grappling with its own economic crisis, despite receiving financial assistance from the EU, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and others to help stave off collapse.

Egypt’s revenues from the Suez Canal dropped by more than 60 percent in 2024, amounting to a $7 billion loss compared to the previous year, President El-Sisi said in a December statement. The loss was primarily driven by regional tensions, including attacks on ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.

Egypt’s economy is also struggling with a high inflation rate, which stood at 24.1 percent in December, according to Trading Economics.




A young boy delivers freshly-baked bread in the al-Darb al-Ahmar district in the old quarters of Cairo on May 28, 2024. 

Economic repercussions are not the sole concern surrounding plans to relocate Gazans to Egypt. Officials believe the move may also threaten the security of the country and the wider region.

El-Sisi told a press conference on Jan. 29 that the transfer of Palestinians “can never be tolerated or allowed because of its impact on Egyptian national security.”

Egyptian academic Nasira said that implementing Trump’s proposal “could shift the conflict onto Egyptian soil and across the Middle East.”




Tanks stand on guard along the Egyptian side near the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025. Egyptians fear that Trump’s proposal to relocate Gazans to Egypt “could shift the conflict onto Egyptian soil and across the Middle East.” (AFP)

Two days before El-Sisi’s statement, Parliament Speaker Hanafy El-Gebaly warned that relocating Gaza’s residents “may impede efforts to maintain the current truce and reach a permanent ceasefire” and risk “transferring the conflict to other territories, with disastrous repercussions for the entire region.”

Nasira said Cairo considers the relocation a threat to its national security, “as it could destabilize the Suez Canal the Sinai Peninsula, which was contested in multiple wars, the most recent in October 1973,” and “fuel further extremism in Egypt and the broader region.”

Echoing Cairo’s concerns, several influential Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, also warned that such plans “threaten the region’s stability, risk expanding the conflict, and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence among its peoples.”

Cairo fears that relocating Palestinians from Gaza — along with Hamas and other militant groups — could unravel the Camp David Accords, brokered in 1978 by US President Jimmy Carter between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.




Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (R) is seen with his supporters in Beirut during the early days of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. (AFP)

Palestinian militant groups could ignite future wars on Egyptian territory — much like in 1970s Lebanon, when Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization turned the southern part of the country into a launchpad for attacks on Israel.

Shortly after the Gaza war began, El-Sisi warned a mass exodus of Palestinians into Egypt’s Sinai could wreck the 1978 peace deal, turning the region into “a base for attacks on Israel,” prompting Israel to “strike Egyptian territory.”

He said: “The peace which we have achieved would vanish from our hands. All for the sake of the idea of eliminating the Palestinian cause.”
 

 


Israel warns it will respond to rockets fired from Lebanon

Updated 17 sec ago
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Israel warns it will respond to rockets fired from Lebanon

Israel warns it will respond to rockets fired from Lebanon
Jerusalem: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the military would hit back after intercepting three rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Saturday.
“We cannot allow fire from Lebanon on Galilee communities,” Katz said in a statement. “The Lebanese government is responsible for attacks from its territory. I have ordered the military to respond accordingly.”

Kurds in Iraq and Syria celebrate the Nowruz festival of spring at a time of new political horizons

Kurds in Iraq and Syria celebrate the Nowruz festival of spring at a time of new political horizons
Updated 22 March 2025
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Kurds in Iraq and Syria celebrate the Nowruz festival of spring at a time of new political horizons

Kurds in Iraq and Syria celebrate the Nowruz festival of spring at a time of new political horizons
  • Nowruz, the Farsi-language word for “new year,” is an ancient Persian festival that is celebrated in countries including Iraq, Syria, Turkiye and Iran
  • or many, Nowruz festivities symbolized not only the arrival of spring but also the spirit and aspirations of the Kurdish people

AKRE. Iraq: Kurds in Iraq and Syria this week marked the Nowruz festival, a traditional celebration of spring and renewal, at a time when many are hoping that a new political beginning is on the horizon.

Nowruz, the Farsi-language word for “new year,” is an ancient Persian festival that is celebrated in countries including Iraq, Syria, Turkiye and Iran. It is characterized by colorful street festivals and torch-bearing processions winding their way into the mountains.

For many, Thursday and Friday’s Nowruz festivities symbolized not only the arrival of spring but also the spirit and aspirations of the Kurdish people, who are now facing a moment of transformation in the region.

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The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which holds sway in much of northeastern Syria, recently signed a landmark deal with the new government in Damascus that includes a ceasefire and eventual merging of the SDF into the Syrian army.

Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye that has spilled over into conflict in Syria and northern Iraq, recently announced a ceasefire after the group’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, called for its members to put down their weapons.

In Iraq, calls for unity

As the sun set behind the mountains of Akre in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq Thursday, more than 1,500 volunteers climbed the steep hills, carrying burning torches as their faces shimmered in the light of the flame.

From a distance, their movements looked like a river of fire flowing up and down the mountain. At the top, small bonfires burned, while the sky was filled with the flashing colors of fireworks.

Iraqi Kurdish people celebrate the Nowruz New Year festival in the town of Akre,in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)

Women wearing colorful dresses with gold and silver jewelry and men dressed in traditional outfits with wide belts and turbans danced in the streets of the town and in the hills, Kurdish flags waving above the crowds.

The sound of dahol drums and zurna flutes echoed everywhere, mixed with modern Kurdish folk songs played from loudspeakers.

According to Akre’s directorate of tourism, some 88,000 people attended the event, including Kurds who traveled from around the region and the world. The substantial turnout came despite the fact that this year the festival coincides with Ramadan, during which many Kurds — like other Muslims — fast from sunrise to sunset daily.

Among those dancing on the hill was Hozan Jalil, who traveled from Batman city in Turkiye. Jalil said he is happy about the peace process and hopeful that it will bear results, although he was also somewhat circumspect. “I hope it won’t finish with regrets and our Kurdish people will not be deceived or cheated,” he said.

Jalil said Nowruz to him represents unity between Kurdish people across national boundaries. “This year, Nowruz to me symbolizes the point of achieving freedom for all Kurdish people,” he said.

For the people of Akre, Nowruz has become a tradition that connects them to Kurds and others everywhere. A local from Akre, described her pride in hosting such a celebration in her town.

Iraqi Kurdish people celebrate the Nowruz New Year festival in the town of Akre,in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)

“It’s a great feeling that everyone from all over the world comes to Akre for this celebration because it makes Akre the capital of Nowruz for the whole world,” said Guevara Fawaz. She was walking through the town’s main square with her family dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes.

Like Jalil, she voiced hopes that the PKK-Turkiye talks would progress and “achieve peace in all four parts of Kurdistan.”

A changing reality in Syria

Across the border in Syria, where former President Bashar Assad was unseated in a lightning rebel offensive in December, Nowruz celebrations took place openly in the streets of the capital for the first time in more than a decade since anti-government protests spiraled into a civil war in 2011.

Hundreds of Kurds packed into Shamdeen Square in the Roken Al-Din neighborhood, the main Kurdish area in the Syrian capital, to light the Nowruz fire, waving Kurdish flags alongside the new, three-starred Syrian flag.

In the village of Hemo, just outside the city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish flag, along with flags of Abdullah Ocalan and the SDF, waved high above the crowds as people danced in the streets.

Iraqi Kurdish people celebrate the Nowruz New Year festival in the town of Akre,in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)

The new rulers in Damascus, Islamist former insurgents, have promised to respect minorities. A temporary constitution announced earlier this month states that “citizens are equal before the law ... without discrimination based on race, religion, gender or lineage.”

But many Kurds were unhappy that the text does not explicitly recognize Kurdish rights.

Mizgeen Tahir, a well-known Kurdish singer who attended the festivities in Hemo, said, “This year, Nowruz is different because it’s the first Nowruz since the fall of the Baath regime and authority,” referring to the now-disbanded Baath party of the Assad dynasty.

But Syria’s Kurdish region “is at a turning point now,” he said.

“This Nowruz, we’re unsure about our situation. How will our rights be constitutionally recognized?” Media Ghanim, from Qamishli, who also joined the celebrations, said she is hopeful that after Assad’s fall, “we will keep moving forward toward freedom and have our rights guaranteed in the Syrian constitution.”

“We hope these negotiations will end with success, because we want our rights as Kurds,” she said.

 

 


Israeli military says it intercepted missile fired from Yemen; Houthis claim responsibility

Israeli military says it intercepted missile fired from Yemen; Houthis claim responsibility
Updated 22 March 2025
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Israeli military says it intercepted missile fired from Yemen; Houthis claim responsibility

Israeli military says it intercepted missile fired from Yemen; Houthis claim responsibility

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Friday, one day after shooting down two projectiles launched by Houthi militants.
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it fired a ballistic missile toward Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, the group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a televised statement in the early hours of Saturday.
Saree said the attack against Israel was the group’s third in 48 hours.
He issued a warning to airlines that the Israeli airport was “no longer safe for air travel and would continue to be so until the Israeli aggression against Gaza ends and the blockade is lifted.”
However, the airport’s website seemed to be operating normally and showed a list of scheduled flights.

The group’s military spokesman has also said without providing evidence that the Houthis had launched attacks against the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.
The group recently vowed to escalate attacks, including those targeting Israel, in response to US strikes
earlier this month, which amount to the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January. The US attacks have killed at least 50 people.
The Houthis’ fresh attacks come under a pledge to expand their range of targets in Israel in retaliation for renewed Israeli strikes in Gaza that have killed hundreds after weeks of relative calm.
The Houthis have carried out over 100 attacks on shipping since Israel’s war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza’s Palestinians.
The attacks have disrupted global commerce and prompted the US military to launch a costly campaign to intercept missiles.
The Houthis are part of what has been dubbed the “Axis of Resistance” — an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq, all backed by Iran. 


Turkiye condemns ‘deliberate Israeli strike’ on Gaza hospital; Israel army insists it ‘struck terrorists’

Turkiye condemns ‘deliberate Israeli strike’ on Gaza hospital; Israel army insists it ‘struck terrorists’
Updated 22 March 2025
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Turkiye condemns ‘deliberate Israeli strike’ on Gaza hospital; Israel army insists it ‘struck terrorists’

Turkiye condemns ‘deliberate Israeli strike’ on Gaza hospital; Israel army insists it ‘struck terrorists’
  • Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel on Tuesday shattered the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January

ISTANBUL/JERUSALEM: Ankara on Friday condemned what it said was a “deliberate” attack by Israel on a Turkish-built hospital in the Gaza Strip.
“We strongly condemn the destruction by Israel of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital,” said a foreign ministry statement.

Israel’s military acknowledged the attack, but insisted it “struck terrorists” in what it described as an inactive Gaza hospital used by Hamas militants.
“Earlier today (Friday), the IDF (military) struck terrorists in a Hamas terrorist infrastructure site that previously had served as a hospital in the central Gaza Strip,” a military spokesman told AFP in response to a question about the Turkish accusations.

Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel on Tuesday shattered the truce that had facilitated the release of more than two dozen hostages and brought relative calm since late January.

Israeli ground forces on Friday advanced deeper into Gaza and vowed to hold more land until Hamas releases its remaining hostages.

In the southern city of Rafah, officials said Israeli bombardments had forced residents into the open, deepening their suffering. Officials said they halted the building of shelter camps to protect employees.

Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians. It says military operations will escalate until Hamas releases the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive — and gives up control of the territory.

Israel had ignored international condemnation of its indescriminate strikes, with Defense Minister Israel Katz warning that Israel would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity until the hostages are released by Hamas.”


UN condemns violence in Gaza and West Bank, urges Israel to resume aid deliveries

UN condemns violence in Gaza and West Bank, urges Israel to resume aid deliveries
Updated 22 March 2025
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UN condemns violence in Gaza and West Bank, urges Israel to resume aid deliveries

UN condemns violence in Gaza and West Bank, urges Israel to resume aid deliveries
  • Middle East peace envoy Sigrid Kaag denounces settlement expansions; says ‘nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people’
  • She calls on Hamas to release remaining hostages; warns both sides to respect obligations under international humanitarian and human rights laws

NEW YORK CITY: A top UN official on Friday condemned ongoing violence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, urged all parties to respect international humanitarian and human rights laws, and called for an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of aid deliveries to Gaza.
During a meeting of the Security Council, the third this week on events in the region, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Sigrid Kaag, also condemned the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and warned that continuing violations of Security Council Resolution 2334 are damaging the prospects for a two-state solution.
Adopted in 2016, Resolution 2334 calls for “immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction,” along with the reversal of “negative trends on the ground that are imperiling the two-state solution.”
In a report presented to the council, Kaag said Israeli authorities have approved about 10,600 new housing units in settlements, including 4,920 in East Jerusalem, despite the resolution’s demand for a halt to such activities.
Her report also highlighted a sharp increase in seizures and demolitions of Palestinian-owned properties. It said that during the reporting period, from Dec. 7, 2024, to March 13, 2025, at least 460 structures were destroyed, displacing 576 Palestinians, including nearly 300 children.
Such actions have been strongly criticized by the UN as a violation of international law, and Kaag reiterated that they undermine hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
“Unfortunately, the high number of fatal incidents across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel precludes me from detailing all,” she continued.
The situation in Gaza continues to be dire, Kaag said, with the UN confirming that at least 3,860 Palestinians were killed during the reporting period, and about 6,000 injured. The humanitarian crisis in the war-battered enclave remains “catastrophic,” as Israeli authorities have halted the entry of essential goods and supplies. Access to clean water is restricted for more than half a million people there, and the already fragile health infrastructure has been severely affected.
Kaag reiterated that the provision of humanitarian aid “is not negotiable” and deliveries must be allowed to reach those in need. She strongly condemned the blocking of aid to Gaza by Israeli authorities, as well as “the widespread killing” and wounding of civilians, and the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” she said.
Kaag also condemned “indiscriminate attacks and the use of human shields” by Hamas, and stressed that all parties involved must “respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”
She called for the immediate release of the 59 remaining Israeli hostages taken by Hamas and other Palestinian groups during the attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, 24 of whom are alive and 35 dead.
“Palestinian armed groups continued to hold hostages in horrific conditions, and fired rockets indiscriminately towards Israel,” said Kaag. “Hostages must be released immediately and unconditionally.
“I strongly condemn the reported ill-treatment of hostages. I remain appalled that there are reasonable grounds to believe that hostages may be subjected to sexual violence and abuse. I also reiterate my condemnation of Hamas’s abhorrent public displays accompanying the release of living and deceased hostages.”
Kaag also condemned the reported ill-treatment, including sexual abuse, of Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities and said that when detainees are released, this must also be carried out in a dignified way.
Violence in the West Bank continues to escalate, with Israeli military operations and settler-related violence contributing to rising casualty figures. At least 123 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed. Meanwhile, 10 Israelis, including children, have lost their lives in attacks by Palestinians. Rising tensions within Palestinian refugee camps, particularly in Jenin and Tulkarem, have resulted in the widespread displacement of occupants and the demolition of homes.
“The escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank is deeply troubling,” Kaag said. “Alongside the rising death toll, Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank are being emptied and sustaining massive infrastructure damage during Israeli operations.”
Kaag rejected any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from the occupied territories, warning that such action amounts to “a grave violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
She condemned violence on both sides of the conflict and called for a policy of “maximum restraint” from the security forces. Lethal force must only be used when “strictly unavoidable to protect life,” she added.
Kaag also expressed alarm over ongoing attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers, some of which have occurred with the support of Israeli security forces.
In addition, she voiced concern about the ongoing Israeli efforts to undermine the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provides vital aid and services to Palestinian refugees.
In her closing remarks, she emphasized the need for a political process within which to resolve the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“We must work collectively to establish a political framework that outlines tangible, irreversible and time-bound steps,” she said.
“A viable two-state solution — Israel and Palestine, of which Gaza is an integral part, living side-by-side in peace and security — is long overdue.”