President Biden asked Egyptian President al-Sisi to renew Egyptian involvement to prevent an escalation in the security situation between Israel and the Palestinians and another round of fighting on the border of the Gaza Strip.
The American Secretary of State Tony Blinken brought this message to Cairo ten days ago, the Egyptians responded positively to the American request and subsequently the Egyptian intelligence summoned Ziyad Al-Nakhala, the Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad and Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Hamas movement, to talks in Cairo with the head of the Egyptian intelligence General Abbas Kamel.
The immediate Egyptian task is to prevent an escalation towards the month of Ramadan in about two months, that is why it agreed to mediate between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organizations, the Egyptians fear that an escalation on the Temple Mount and the border of the Gaza Strip could destabilize the Egyptian regime.
Following pressure from the Biden administration and Egyptian intelligence, the Netanyahu government asked the High Court to delay the evacuation of the Bedouin outpost in Khan Al-Ahmar by a few months and postponed until further notice the demolition of a large Palestinian structure that was illegally built in the village of Silwan in East Jerusalem.
Egyptian sources said that the meeting between the head of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and Ziyad Al-Nakhallah, the secretary general of the Islamic Jihad,did not lead to a breakthrough.
Al-Nakhallah refused to commit to maintaining calm at all costs, but agreed to continue contacts with Egypt.
The Hamas movement, on the other hand, showed a more moderate position, it made it clear that it is interested in continuing the calm on the border of the Gaza Strip and emphasized that it showed restraint even though the IDF forces killed 5 of its members in the Jericho area.
The Egyptians are not satisfied with the behavior of the Netanyahu government, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri met in Cairo with Thor Vansland, the UN envoy for the Middle East, and accused that the unilateral steps taken by Israel increase the anger on the Palestinian side and negatively affect the chances of resuming negotiations on the basis of solution 2 the states.
Egypt is now demanding that Israel maintain calm and has appealed to the Biden administration to pressure Netanyahu government on this matter in order to facilitate Egyptian mediation.
Senior security officials in Israel said that Israel rejected an Egyptian request to prevent the IDF from entering Area A in the West Bank and explained that this was necessary to prevent terrorist attacks and to prevent the armed groups from overthrowing the PA rule like it overthrew the PA government in the Gaza Strip in 2007.
The only formula that Israel has agreed to is calm for calm.
William Burns, the head of the CIA who visited the Middle East about two weeks ago warned this week from the possibility of a third Palestinian intifada breaking out, the IDF and the police are also preparing for this possibility.
According to Palestinian sources, since the beginning of this year, 42 Palestinians have been killed by IDF forces in Judea and Samaria, Israel is destroying illegal construction in East Jerusalem and working to worsen the prison conditions of security prisoners.
Egypt is also trying now to restart the negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, the assessment in the Israeli security establishment is very pessimistic, the impression is that the Palestinians want an escalation at any cost in the month of Ramadan and it will be very difficult to prevent it, therefore, Israel’s security forces are preparing accordingly.
