Thousands demonstrate in Rafah in support of Sisi’s position against forcibly displacing Palestinians

Thousands of people were transported across the country to Rafah on Friday to join organized demonstrations in opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip into Egypt and support of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.. 

The issue was thrust back onto the agenda in recent days by United States President Donald Trump, who expressed his wish for the resettlement of Palestinians to “clean out” Gaza, echoing repeatedly voiced ambitions by Israeli politicians and military figures since the beginning of the 2023 war. 

Expressing his forceful rejection of the prospect of Egypt hosting Palestinians displaced from the strip, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made a public address earlier in the week saying Egypt could “not participate in such an injustice.”  

Sisi raised the likelihood of popular mobilization behind the issue on Wednesday at a presser convened to mark a Kenyan state visit. “I tell the Egyptian people, if I asked them to do this, they would all take to the streets and tell me no,” he said. 

Despite strong rejection in Egypt of the total blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel, which has prevented the passage of aid via Egypt’s border into the strip for most of the past 15 months, Egyptian authorities have been quick to shut down public demonstrations in support of Palestine, with hundreds of protesters still in detention following their arrests at pro-Palestine protests in Cairo and Alexandria.

The footage of huge crowds at Rafah was broadcast throughout Friday on state-aligned television channels to viewers nationwide, making for a rare spectacle.

Since dawn on Friday, buses transported hundreds of citizens from various governorates east of the Delta to the crossing in northwestern Sinai, according to domestic media.

Some of the vehicles were emblazoned with images of the president or the logo of National Front Alliance, a new political group set to participate in its first parliamentary race this year.

The crowds, visible in livestreams from Egypt’s border with Gaza, could be seen raising Egyptian and Palestinian flags, while some raised banners that read slogans such as “the Egyptian people are behind you, Mr. President.”

People could be heard chanting, “long live Egypt,” amid pauses in broadcast coverage.

Among the speakers who phoned for interviews on the Extra News channel was Assem al-Gazzar, the former housing minister and current deputy for the founders of the National Front Alliance, who echoed the line Sisi laid out in his speech earlier in the week. 

Opposition to the forced displacement of Palestinians is “a fixed belief,” Gazzar told the Extra News anchor, characterizing the position as “part of our belief in preserving our land and our belief in protecting the Palestinian cause and the right of the Palestinian people to have a state on their land.”

Despite saying that Egypt is committed to cooperating with Trump to reach a lasting peace in the region, Sisi asserted that the country would remain opposed to the forced displacement of Palestinians “whether or not I am in my place.”

Speaking to reporters who asked about Egypt and Jordan’s opposition to hosting Gaza Palestinians, Trump insisted on Thursday that “they will do it.”

Civil institutions, from political parties to professional syndicates, fell in line with the position articulated by the government and the Foreign Ministry, with many expressing their intention to send representatives to the Friday demonstrations, marking the first time since 2023 that large crowds were seen near the border Egypt shares with Gaza.

The head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and former presidential candidate Farid Zahran said on Thursday that his party had prepared for a popular delegation to travel to the Rafah crossing following its call to “all segments of the Egyptian people” to demonstrate.

“The movement will not be under the umbrella of a party or faction,” Zahran said, adding that it will not raise “flags or slogans other than the flags of Egypt and Palestine and banners supporting the Palestinian people and rejecting displacement.”

Interviewees on live coverage of Friday’s demonstration, including MP Mohamed Aboul Enain, also repeated Sisi’s emphasis on Egypt’s diplomatic position in support of the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.

Gazzar and Enain also pointed to the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza last week — one of Hamas’s major demands in the ceasefire talks over the course of the war. 

The two officials said that the mass return to northern Gaza shows that the residents of the strip will always refuse to leave their homeland.

Trump’s insistence on resettling Palestinians outside of Gaza has emerged as the Republican president’s team takes over  negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire in the strip, following the beginning of an open-ended truce between Israel and resistance forces on January 19, following mediation by Egypt, Qatar and the US.

Under the Biden administration, the US said it opposed the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in response to concerns by Arab countries at the time.

The truce and prisoner exchange deal brought a comparative calm to the strip following months of continuous Israeli bombardment that killed over 47,000 Palestinians.

The agreement is set to lead to a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip over three stages, with Israeli withdrawal from the strip and its future governance still wide open to competing political visions.

Israeli forces still stationed in the strip have opened fire at Palestinians in various areas since the agreement came into effect.

Before the war, Palestinians were able to request and gain permission to leave the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing.

Around 4,000 Palestinians were evacuated from the strip via the Rafah crossing during the first five months of the war, until Israel’s invasion and occupation of Rafah in May sealed the border crossing. 

The crossing is reportedly due to open again on Saturday.