US President Donald Trump said this week that his administration is investigating whether Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire by eliminating senior Hamas official Raad Saad and three others during a military raid on Saturday in the western part of the Gaza Strip. Israel has supposedly redeployed from that part of the Strip after the October ceasefire agreement.
Israeli press reported growing frustrations in the Trump administration at repeated Israeli violations of the ceasefire over the past two months. Trump’s statement came ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, scheduled for 29 December.
Reports indicate there is US interest in holding a meeting between President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Netanyahu, either in Cairo or in Washington during the latter’s visit to the US.
Egyptian officials declined to confirm any plans for such a meeting. One informed official said on Saturday that the idea “is being proposed”, adding that if the meeting is to happen it “is more likely that it will convene in Egypt, though not necessarily in Cairo.”
However, speaking on Monday, the same official sounded more cautious about the possibility of a meeting. Israel, he said, has been violating the Gaza ceasefire “almost on a daily basis”, adding that there have been “hundreds of attacks that Israel has carried out on the part of Gaza beyond the Yellow Line.”
The Yellow Line divides Gaza into two almost equal parts, an eastern part and a western part that Israel is still controlling. According to the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, Israel is not supposed to conduct military operations in the part of Gaza that it has redeployed from. According to Palestinian figures, close to 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israel during these military raids.
“Israeli violations go way beyond the military raids,” the same official said. He referred to the systematic Israeli failure to allow in agreed and “desperately needed” humanitarian aid. He also referred to Israel’s rejection of allowing the Palestinian Authority (PA) a presence in Rafah on the Palestinian side to allow the two-way operation of the Rafah Crossing, the only one that connects Gaza with the world outside Israel.
During the past week, Israel planned to unilaterally open the Palestinian side of the crossing, which is at the southernmost part of eastern Gaza that falls within the Yellow Line, to allow Palestinians to exit but not to return to Gaza. It was only when the Egyptian authorities opposed the scheme that it was put on hold.
Over the past few weeks, Egyptian officials have repeatedly said that Egypt is set to operate the Rafah Crossing once a PA team is secured on the Gaza side to allow for the exit of critically ill and wounded Palestinians who need to receive medical treatment in Egypt. This week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that over 1,000 Palestinians who needed desperate medical treatment had died between July and November due to the delayed evacuation.
An international medical source said that some Palestinians with enough resources have opted to agree to leave with their loved ones through Israeli crossings to get the medical treatment they need away from home.
“People with sufficient resources feel that they have to do anything to try and save their family members,” the source said. She added that increasingly this has come to include a decision to abandon Gaza.
According to the Egyptian official, the Israeli “tightening of the noose” around Gaza is designed to force the eviction of the Palestinians from the Strip. “Egypt is opposed to the forced displacement scenario, and Israel is playing games to get it done,” he added.
Informed sources approached by Al-Ahram Weekly said that there are open channels between Cairo and Tel Aviv and that consultations between the two sides have not stopped on the situation in Gaza.
They also said that Cairo is in constant contact with Washington. Talks focus on the composition and deployment of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) that is supposed to be stationed in Gaza early next year to avert the collapse of the ceasefire and promote the chances for long-term stability under Trump’s 20-point plan.
The ISF has been authorised by a UN Security Council resolution. However, disagreements continue on its composition and mandate. Israel is opposed to Turkey and Qatar participating in the ISF. Hamas insists that the ISF should only be composed of friendly states.
Moreover, Israel insists that the ISF should work on disarming Hamas. Hamas, however, insists that its arms can only be handed over to an elected Palestinian government.
But Hamas agreed that it could agree to “neutralise” its military capacity upon agreement with the mediators, provided it receives firm security guarantees from the US about Israel fully withdrawing from Gaza and committing not to attack Gazans for 10 years. This position has the support of the three ceasefire mediators of Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar.
According to the Egyptian official, much will depend on the outcome of the Trump-Netanyahu meeting. “We will see if the US will convince Netanyahu to comply with the terms of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, so that we can proceed with the second phase,” he said.
He stated that progress on this front is necessary for Egypt. As far as Egyptian-Israeli relations are concerned, the unfinished agreement on a multi-billion-dollar deal on natural gas exports from Israel to Egypt “is not just about Egyptian interests, but it is also about Israel’s,” he added.
“Egypt needs natural gas, but Israel also needs to sell its natural gas, and Egypt is the prime destination,” the official said. He added that as far as Egypt is concerned, there is no way to fully separate the bilateral from the regional when it comes to Israel.
According to a well-informed political source, something will have to happen in Gaza to break the deadlock before there can be a meeting between Al-Sisi and Netanyahu. He said that Israel must promptly allow the entry of rain-proof tents and makeshift housing units to spare the Palestinians in Gaza from spending yet another cold winter under the wind and rain.
Gaza has already been hit by several storms that have inundated many of the shabby tents the Palestinians are using for shelter. On Monday and Tuesday, rain swept away tents being used to house displaced Palestinians.
According to the Palestinian Press Agency SAFA, rainwater also seeped into parts of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, particularly the emergency and reception departments, disrupting operations.
The political source said that speeding up the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including food, medicine, and blankets and winter clothes, is an essential demand for Egypt. This week, SAFA reported that 14 Palestinian civilians, including children, had died due to the cold weather.
Since the beginning of the ceasefire, the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) has been sending convoys carrying food and medicine to Gaza. During the past two weeks, the ERC has intensified its convoys of emergency aid.
“Egypt is a key, or actually the major, provider of aid to Gaza,” the official said. He added that this was the case during the two-year war and after the ceasefire. However, he added that the official Egyptian position is that the aid that is allowed in by Israel is still far from meeting the basic needs of the around two-million displaced Palestinians.
The winter rainfall has inundated hundreds of thousands of houses damaged during the two-year Israeli war on Gaza. According to the local authorities, it is putting more and more people in desperate need of safe shelter.
It is also compounding the trouble that the authorities are facing in recovering bodies from underneath the rubble, a very difficult process that started when the ceasefire had come into force in October.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 December, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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