Shoukry said Egypt rejected these Israeli calls on Saturday while receiving his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, who is visiting Cairo in light of the current war in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli jets have dropped thousands of leaflets into northern Gaza calling on residents to abandon their homes and travel to the southern strip, which borders Egypt, ahead of a planned ground invasion.

Last week, an Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht advised Palestinians fleeing Israeli air strikes in Gaza to head to Egypt.

In a statement on Friday, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected Israeli orders for Gazans to leave their homes and head south as a “grave violation of international humanitarian law.”

Halting escalation

During his meeting with Baerbock, Shoukry stressed the need for Israel to immediately cease its intense bombardment and refrain from escalatory steps, including threatening to execute a ground attack on Gaza and terrorizing innocent civilians.

Shoukry called on the international community to assume its responsibilities in halting this escalation and calling for calm.

This would create an opportunity for diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of this escalation and restore the path towards a just and comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian cause, Shoukry said.

He added that such a resolution remains the sole guarantee for restoring security and stability in the region.

Delivering aid
 

The top Egyptian diplomat said the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip requires countries to provide urgent aid to Gaza residents and alleviate their suffering.

Egypt has continued to receive aid flights from several countries in North Sinai's El-Arish for delivery to Gaza despite Israeli warnings that the Rafah border crossing linking Gaza with Egypt’s Sinai cannot be used except through coordination with Israel.

Today, Egyptian authorities announced they will only allow the passage of foreign residents of Gaza through the Rafah crossing only as part of a foreign aid delivery agreement, Al-Qahera News TV reported, citing informed sources.

Over the past week, Israel has imposed a full blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, severing all supplies including food, water, and electricity, and putting the Palestinian territory at risk of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Israel has also rained air and artillery strikes on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 2,200 Palestinians and wounding thousands more, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Israel has destroyed or damaged the homes of 1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, displacing hundreds of thousands inside the strip.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes targeted convoys of Palestinians fleeing the north of the strip to the south in the past 48 hours.

On Saturday evening, Nibal Farsakh, spokeswoman for the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC), said that the medical staff at Al-Shifa and Al-Quds Hospitals in northern Gaza will not leave their workplaces, rejecting the Israeli occupation army’s ultimatum to the hospitals in the north of the strip to evacuate.