Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry speaking at at the 6th Arab-Russian forum in Marrakech on Wednesday, December 20, 2023 (Photo courtesy of the Egyptian foreign ministry)
Shoukry highlighted the categorical rejection expressed by different parties of the international community against the deportation of Palestinians, urging for more from these parties.
“It is the time for the international community to prove the sincerity of its will in confronting the Israeli practices that practically push towards [forced] displacement,” Shoukry said at the sixth Arab-Russian forum in Marrakech.
Minister Shoukry reiterated Egypt’s position which considers the displacement of the Palestinian people outside their land “a red line that should never be crossed under any pretext.”
Addressing such practices, according to Shoukry, will pave the way for serious and effective negotiations to achieve the two-state solution, which guarantees the right of the Palestinian people to establish their safe, independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Egypt’s top diplomat reiterated the call for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and ensuring full access to humanitarian aid to the strip, where Israel has inhumanely imposed a siege, starvation, and collective punishment policies on more than two million residents.
Israel has carried out intensive and indiscriminate bombardment on the civilians in the northern parts of Gaza, pushing them towards the south of the strip, concurrently issuing warnings to residents in the southern strip, including Khan Younis, to move further south to Rafah near the border with Egypt.
Since 7 October, Israel has put over 2.3 million Palestinians under a complete blockade, cutting off all food, medicine, water, and fuel supplies and impeding the entry of aid coming from the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
Until now, Israel's war, one of the deadliest bombing campaigns of civilian targets since WWII, has killed some 19,900 Palestinians and wounded over 55,000 others in Gaza and the West Bank, most of whom are women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israeli airstrikes have also destroyed 61 percent of all residential buildings in the strip, displacing nearly two million Gazans.
The Gaza crisis exposed the defects of the global system and how it still follows a policy of double standards, advocating for a more balanced international system that prioritizes human values and the principles of justice and fairness, Shoukry said.
He also thanked Russia for its balanced international political positions towards Arab issues, including its stance towards the development in Gaza in the Security Council.
Shoukry expressed his aspiration for continued Russian support for Arab and Palestinian positions, rejecting Israeli violations and seeking to obtain the international support required to recognize the State of Palestine and obtain full membership in the United Nations.
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