There are International Rules of War ... and There are International Rules of Israeli War

"Once a city of 270,000 at the southernmost area of the [Gaza] Strip, Rafah has been the focus of intense combat at various times since October 7, 2023."

"Today, the city lies in ruins. Driving on a newly paved road -- in a convoy of military vehicles with heavy protection -- we passed through piles of twisted rebar, demolished buildings and rubble."

"The intact shell of one building stood, in stark contrast to the desolation."

"After about 15 minutes we arrived at our destination -- a massive humanitarian aid complex that was near completion. The Israel Defense Forces' international spokesman, Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani explained that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a U.S.-based not-for profit, will operate the centre which will have the capacity to provide millions of meals daily to displaced civilians."

Vivian Bercovici, Israeli journalist 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to IDF troops in Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border, July 18, 2024. (Avi Ohayon/GPO

 

The location of which she writes is not far from the Egyptian border. Egypt, it should be noted, has recently accused Israel of committing 'genocide'. Egypt, it should also be noted, has steadfastly refused to open its border with Gaza to permit Palestinians fleeing the conflict in Gaza to enter the Sinai. Should that be interpreted as Egypt placing itself deliberately in a position of complicity in genocide? After all, Egypt, until it marched on Israel in 1967, occupied Gaza, and many Gazans of today trace their ancestry to Egypt.

 

Israel is now, once again, fighting for its existence. This time, not against the massed armies of its neighbours, but the terrorist groups that some of its neighbours in the Middle East have supported. Could an existential situation be more complex than that of Israel, when it has finally been able to sign peace treaties with some of its Arab neighbours, while the terrorist groups in Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza along with those in Iraq, all loyal to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and by extension Qatar, seek to demolish the Jewish state? 

 

In responding to the violently lethal threats of Iran's proxy militias and Iran itself, Israel risks alienating its Arab neighbours with whom it has signed those peace agreements. Egypt, a case in point, has assembled its military in large numbers along its border with Israel, as though it is preparing to launch a war against a neighbour it has long since pledged peace with. And nor is Israel's plight one restrained to the Middle East. Its Western allies in Europe and elsewhere now accuse it of disproportional force against its enemies. 

Palestinians carry humanitarian aid that they gathered after an aid drop, as they walk in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on August 18, 2025. (AFP)

 

These are death-cult Islamists whose charters declare their purpose is to destroy Israel and to kill Jews. In responding to the deadly attack of October 7, 2023, where thousands of terrorists crossed into southern Israel to rape and to maim, to plunder and to murder, Israel had little choice but to invade Gaza to hunt down Hamas's leaders and its operatives. In doing so, its northern border with Lebanon saw another terror group, Hezbollah, rain missiles down onto the Golan Heights at Israeli communities.

 

And before long, the Houthi terrorists in Yemen responded as well, attacking shipping in the Red Sea, asserting that any vessels with any connection to Israel would be targeted; in the process upsetting marine traffic internationally. Yet Israel's traditional allies, in the full knowledge that Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis and the Iranian Republic use their own civilian populations as shields to protect the 'mujahadeen' from Israel's military responses to their attacks, focus on the plight of the civilian population in Gaza where a 'moral' military prewarns citizens of attacks and does its utmost to minimize civilian casualties.

 

Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty attends an Arab officials’ meeting in Riyadh on January 12, 2025. (Fayez Nureldine / AFP)

 

During an all-out conflict when a nation is forced to commit itself to a war against those who relentlessly and continually attack its citizens, the internationally acknowledged rules of war affirm that such a nation has the right to defend itself and its population and to counter-attack the offender out for its blood. By concealing themselves among the population for cover, and by using civilian infrastructure for command bases and by firing off missiles from launch sites deliberately placed in crowded civilian areas, Hamas has with intention, placed its civilian population in direct line of danger.

 

It uses the statistics it gathers on casualties among the civilian population, to convince the international community of Israel's intention to commit 'genocide', a charge that is not only a risible slander, but one that reality itself denies. What other country at war in the annals of international conflict through the ages has ever been expected to defend itself and obliterate an enemy sworn to its destruction, while also protecting a civilian population and to feed it, while its enemies are known to hijack humanitarian aid meant to avoid starvation among Gaza's civilians?

 

Hamas has in its possession, the remnants of 250 hostages it originally kidnapped from Israel and took to Gaza to torture and starve and even slaughter, because Jewish bodies, alive or dead are bargaining chips of great value to the Hamas terror machinery knowing full well that Israel attempts to move heaven and earth to rescue its people imprisoned in the underground hellscape of Gaza, including those held for ransom by Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who support the sadistic cruelty of their leaders in savaging Jewish lives.

 

 

"The Muwasi-adjacent site will be operated by GHF and offer ready access to food and other life essentials in a safe, controlled environment."

"Civilians will walk a 500-metre path, flat and secure, far from Hamas fighters or criminal gangs."

"Once inside the complex they will receive food aid to last several days and within minutes return to their temporary shelters in Muwasi."

"To avoid panics and crowd surges the centre would be operational 24/7 if necessary and supplies will be delivered by truck using the same road we took. At a minimum, basic life necessities will be available."

Vivian Bercovici, Israeli journalist 

Egyptian Inflation/Poverty Forcing the Country to "Disinvite" Migrants

A refugee selling Sudanese goods in Giza, Egypt. Heba Khamis - The New York Times

"[Egypt] is treating them like Egyptians, despite the fact that we are not a rich country." 

"There is no country in the world assuming these responsibilities and challenges like here in Egypt."

"We don’t have one single refugee camp — they [foreign migrants/refugees] are fully integrated in society."

Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty 

"I'd like to appeal to the government of Egypt: Give us residence, even if it's a little more expensive [exacting taxation fees on permanent residents who arrived as migrants/refugees]."

"We're facing tough conditions."

Abu Saleh, 32, Syrian 

Working in a small grocery store, Abu Saleh, a Syrian man whose family arrived in Egypt on tourist visas, (whose real name is kept private), has lived for 13 years in Cairo "without a single issue". And then in July he discovered he would no longer be permitted to enroll his son in school without a residence permit. He was informed he would have to return to Syria to renew his family's tourist visas, and then pay $2,000 per person in fees every six months under changed rules.

Cairo claims it has taken in nine million refugees from various unsettled sources, from Syria to Sudan and elsewhere. No mean feat for any country to absorb in an atmosphere of humanitarian welcome for those fleeing untenable, threatening situations, be they civil wars or country-to-country conflict in regional wars, endemic poverty or escaping secular tribal and ethnic animosities. All the more of a burden for a country of 117 million people whose inflationary economy is feeble and cannot sustain additional residents with meagre resources.

Shopping in Cairo.  Credit...Hadeer Mahmoud Ahmed/The New York Times

Egypt exemplified the very picture of a country generously welcoming migrants from across Africa and the Middle East; refugees fleeing conflict and social inequality, searching for stability, security and opportunities to advance a future for their families. Foreigners could be assured of total acceptance on their arrival as newcomers in a country whose population, albeit themselves living at or below the poverty line had compassion for others.

The steady and ongoing arrival of newcomers, however, has elicited a new attitude among government leaders and the population at large. Migrants are being accused of making life more difficult for native Cairenes, driving up rent costs, and introducing female genital mutilation. The wars in neighbouring Gaza, Sudan and Libya have impacted heavily on Egypt. 

Foreigners have been living and working in Egypt irrespective of whether they are refugees, migrant workers or even Westerners seeking an  escape from the coronavirus lockdowns where for 13 years a steady stream of newcomers have flooded Egypt. People from Sudan, Yemen, Eritrea and more recently Palestinians from Gaza. Lax immigration rules have led many not to bother formally registering, much less receiving official permission to remain on a long-term basis.

The civil war in Sudan drove a surge of refugees to Egypt, leading the impoverished Cairo government to a lack of appreciation for the overwhelming presence of foreigners. The result has been policy-tightening. According to analysts and diplomats, the hope was that expressing discontent with their lot in absorbing such great numbers, might serve to alert the international community that they have an obligation, if they hope to evade their own refugee/migrant surge, to economically support Egypt.

 

There is the previous example of Turkey which infamously indulged in the very same ploy, deliberately seeking to blackmail the European Union into financially supporting Turkey's sheltering of millions of refugees from Syria escaping the civil war. Many of whom sought to move on to find haven in Europe by their millions, with Turkey persuading the EU that its generous financial contribution to Turkey's staggering costs in maintaining Syrian refugees would convince it not to open the floodgates to Europe.

 

Sudanese men leaving a mosque after midday prayers in Giza, Egypt. Refugee advocates acknowledge that Egypt needs more resources to handle the influx of newcomers.Credit...Heba Khamis - The New York Times

Egypt's economy was precarious even before the war in Gaza. The conflict in Gaza impacted shipping in the Red Sea when the Yemenite Houthi group began targeting marine  traffic in an aggressively violent piracy invasion with the purpose of striking merchant marine vessels with any connection to Israel, claiming solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. The result has been that shipping companies have been forced to seek a longer route along the Horn of Africa to evade Houthi attacks. Business for the Suez Canal has deeply decreased accordingly, and Egypt has felt the financial pinch to the tune of $7 billion in revenue lost.

 

In an act of tightening the rules and shedding some of its foreign resident burden, Egypt has begun expelling Sudanese refugees by rounding them up, detaining and enacting summary deportations. Syrians are now facing the choice of paying thousands of dollars in 'taxes' to the Egyptian government for the privilege -- and such it is -- of remaining in Egypt.

Photo: Embrace the Middle East