Egypt denies responsibility for obstructing aid from reaching Gaza after being implicated in Israel’s World Court defense against genocide charges

Egypt categorically denies responsibility for obstructing humanitarian aid and relief from reaching Gaza, as per a statement released by Diaa Rashwan, the head of the State Information Service, and broadcast on Egyptian television channels on Friday night.

The statement came after Egypt was implicated on Friday by the Israeli defense at the International Court of Justice as being responsible for the lack of aid entering the Gaza Strip while the humanitarian crisis escalated during the 99 days of the Israeli war on Gaza.

Facing political pressure in recent months to open the Rafah border crossing to allow for goods and people to flow in and out of the Gaza Strip, Egypt has repeatedly blamed Israel for obstructing the delivery of relief supplies to the Gaza Strip, which aid organizations say falls far below the volumes required to sustain life for the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped under Israel’s aggression.

The Friday hearing was part of proceedings in the case filed by South Africa at the World Court which accuses Israel of genocidal acts against the Palestinian people under the 1948 genocide convention. South Africa asks the court to take urgent provisional measures amounting to a ceasefire order to prevent further harm being done. On the second day of the case, Israel presented its defense at The Hague on Friday, where it rejected the accusations brought against it by South Africa.

The case before U.N.'s top court could last for years, nevertheless, it has the potential to exert a decisive impact on the ongoing war, possibly leading to a ceasefire.

Arguing that there is no need for the court to take urgent measures, lawyer Omri Sender representing Israel told the ICJ during Friday’s hearing that access to Gaza from the Rafah border crossing is under the control of Egypt.

Sender added   that an emergency operations room involving Israel, Egypt, the United States, and the United Nations is working daily to enhance the entry and distribution of aid in real-time, and solve bottlenecks, pointing to this as proof that “a great effort is indeed invested in eliminating bottlenecks so as to improve the entrance and distribution of aid.”

In response to South Africa’s presented evidence on Thursday that Israel has been depriving Palestinians of clean water, leading to a situation whereby “clean water is all but gone, leaving far below the amount required to safely drink, clean and cook,” Sender argued that Israel is remedying damage to water infrastructure and that a water pipe transporting water into southern Gaza from Egypt commenced operations a few weeks ago.

In response to these claims, a statement from Rashwan on Friday evening described Israel as deflecting the blame from itself to Egypt to escape condemnation by the ICJ, and that Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Energy Minister Eli Cohen, have publicly stated that preventing aid from entering Gaza is part of the war their state is waging against the strip, Rashwan continued. 

He emphasized that Egypt's sovereignty is limited to its side of the Rafah border crossing, while the Gaza side is under the control of the Occupation authority, stressing that Egyptian officials consistently affirmed that the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing has remained open without interruption. 

Rashwan noted that several high-ranking international officials, including the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, have attempted to visit the Rafah border crossing from the Egyptian side. However, none were able to enter the Gaza Strip, either due to Israeli military restrictions or concerns for their safety amid ongoing Israeli bombings in the area.

If Israel wished to expedite aid deliveries, said Rashwan, there are multiple other border crossings passing directly between Israel and Gaza. He added that Egypt’s own trucks are now delivering aid in the strip, instead of passing aid from the Egyptian side of the border to Palestinian trucks for distribution.  

The accusations place Egypt in an awkward position. Egyptian opposition figures and advocacy groups abroad have called for Egypt to open Rafah border crossing, with foreign activists facing expulsion from the country after holding protests to that effect outside the Foreign Ministry in Cairo.

Hamas also called on Egypt on Monday to open the Rafah border crossing and to improve the mechanism for approving the transfer of wounded Palestinians out of Gaza for treatment abroad, saying that at present only around 10 to 20 wounded are allowed to be transferred out of Gaza daily while tens of thousands of people have suffered injuries. 

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, has accused Israeli authorities of hindering the entry of aid multiple times, while border crossings at Rafah and Karam Abo Salem have been directly targeted in Israeli airstrikes multiple times over the 99 days of its aggression on Gaza. 

Egypt’s denial of responsibility for the situation comes as Israel mounts its defense in one of the largest cases ever to come before an international court. Hearings began on Thursday after South Africa, a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause formally accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. The South African lawsuit has garnered widespread support from numerous countries, political groups, and NGOs, The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, and countries such as Turkey, Malaysia, Jordan, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and Pakistan  Bolivia, Namibia, and Venezuela have expressed their support and joined in endorsing it. 

In its defense hearing on Friday, lawyers representing Israel contended that its offensive on Gaza by ground, by air and by sea is a legitimate response to the Hamas offensive on Israel on October 7.