The Times of Israel: Cairo is angry with Tel Aviv.
Al-Mayadeen quoted the Times of Israel as saying that Cairo is concerned about Israel’s intentions to push Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula, given its plans to focus on initial reconstruction projects in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
A series of disagreements has caused Tel Aviv’s plans for a trilateral meeting (Israel, Egypt and the United States) in Egypt to fail, and the newspaper reported that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is not currently planning to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Times of Israel quoted an unnamed Tel Aviv regime official as saying that Egypt is angry with Israel over a series of issues that have not been resolved for months, which reduces the likelihood of any meeting between the two presidents in the near future, despite Israel and the United States being interested in moving the summit forward.
The opening of the Rafah crossing is limited to Palestinians wishing to leave the Gaza Strip, which Egypt sees as an attempt to depopulate Gaza and insists it “will not allow such a thing.”
The source also noted that Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen’s withdrawal from signing a gas agreement with Egypt last October angered Cairo and Washington, as he viewed the move as unfair to Israel.
Relations between Netanyahu and Sisi have been strained for years, and despite Netanyahu’s recent efforts to improve relations, they have not spoken since before the Gaza war.
The source confirmed that Sisi has insisted on not communicating with Netanyahu until there is a fundamental change in Israel’s behavior toward Cairo, and that he does not want to be used as a “tool” during an Israeli election year.