Ceasefire talks said to cause rift between Israel and Egypt

Cairo was also angered by Israeli raids in Judea and Samaria after the truce. 

By Debbie Reiss, World Israel News

The Egypt-brokered ceasefire negotiations to end the recent conflict between Israel and Gaza-based terrorists hit an impasse and caused a “significant deterioration” in relations between Jerusalem and Cairo, Kan public broadcaster reported, citing unnamed sources.

Egypt, which has served as mediator in ending several rounds of conflicts between Israel and Gaza-based terror groups in recent years, worked with Qatar to end the three-day escalation earlier this month between Jerusalem and the Islamic Jihad. The skirmish saw more than 1,100 rockets fired at Israel.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 49 people, including 15 children, were killed during the three-day operation. At least 11 of the children were killed by terror rockets that fell short of their target.

Egyptian officials were further angered because Israel did not “take its foot off the gas” and reduce military activity in Judea and Samaria in the days following the operation, the report said. Instead, the IDF carried out a major raid in Nablus following the truce, killing several Palestinian terrorists.

Hours after Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid hailed Egypt for its role in brokering a ceasefire with the Islamic Jihad terror group, the Arab nation’s representative at the United Nations lashed out at Israel for its “flagrant violation” of Palestinian rights, citing inaccurate statistics to prove his point and denouncing the Jewish state’s blockade of Gaza – while conveniently omitting mention of his own country’s blockade of the Strip.

Egyptian Ambassador to the UN Osama Abdelkhalek decried the “43 martyrs” who died during the 66-hour operation, a number that was inaccurate according to the UN’s own statistics, which were relayed to Abdel Khalek before his speech by the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wenessland, according to Times of Israel.

Abdelkhalek failed to distinguish between the deaths of Islamic Jihad terrorists and Palestinian civilians and condemned the arrests of terror suspects.

“Egypt will never abandon its historic responsibilities vis-a-vis the Palestinian brotherly people and our efforts [to build] a better future which we all look forward to when peace, security, and stability prevail in the Middle East,” he said.