Tamer Qarmout, professor of public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, tells Al Jazeera letting hundreds of people into Egypt is far from enough to address the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
He blamed Israel for the few people allowed to escape. “The borders are under their control, based on the fact that Israel is still the de facto occupying power in the Gaza Strip.”
Qarmout also noted Egypt is wary of a mass exodus.
“The Egyptians are nervous of the displacement scenario. They don’t want to see refugees in the Sinai. They also want to protect the Palestinian cause; they don’t want to give any pretext for Israel to empty Gaza of its own citizens into Egypt. There won’t be any future for a Palestinian state if so.”
The opening of the Rafah border to several hundred people is “a drop in the ocean of interventions that are needed to stop these massacres“, he added.
Source: AlJazeera
