By Ingy Ashraf,
According to AP news, Egypt is threatening to suspend its peace treaty with Israel if Israeli troops enter the highly populated Gaza border town of Rafah, and fighting there could compel the closing of the territory’s primary aid supply route, according to two Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat.
The threat to suspend the Camp David Accords, which have been a cornerstone of regional security for nearly 50 years, came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that sending troops into Rafah was required to win the four-month-old battle against Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled to Rafah to avoid violence in other areas, and they are crammed into enormous tent camps and UN-run shelters near the border. Egypt is concerned about an enormous number of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who may never be permitted to return.
The standoff between Israel and Egypt, two strong US allies, comes as relief groups warn that an offensive in Rafah will exacerbate the already disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza, where about 80 percent of residents have fled their homes and where the UN claims a quarter of the population threatens hunger.
