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Israel Secured Food Aid to the Palestinians — Not the US or Egypt
An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
It turns out that there are two ways to open the humanitarian corridor from Rafah through Egypt, which Egypt nailed shut in early November.
One is to beg and plead with Cairo. The other is to let the IDF evacuate the Palestinian civilians in Rafah and take military command of the Gaza side of the crossing.
The first failed. The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Egyptian officials threatened the Egypt-Israel peace treaty could be suspended if Israel entered Rafah, or if any of Rafah’s refugees moved into Sinai.
Preventing refugees in a war zone from finding safe haven — even temporarily — is, if not a war crime, then totally uncivilized. Keep in mind that northern Sinai is almost entirely empty, and a temporary military facility could easily have been established there. Even NPR remarked on it.
“Almost entirely empty?” Well, except for Bedouins and ISIS.
ISIS? Yes. Israel has worked with Egypt for years to thwart ISIS and secure the Israel/Egypt border, including allowing Egypt to bring forces in excess of those permitted by the Camp David Accords. In 2019, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi told CBS News that cooperation between Cairo and Jerusalem was excellent.
“We have a wide range of cooperation with the Israelis,” he said.
So what happened, and what does that have to do with closing Rafah?
Israel has discovered nearly 700 tunnels inside Gaza, of which 70 thus far are known to go into Sinai. Look backward from there.
It seems that Egypt, much as it despises the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian branch, couldn’t refuse the benefits associated with the subway-sized tunnels from Gaza into Egypt. And those benefits are tied to Iran.
The Islamic Republic, the instigator of all chaos in the region, used the tunnels to ferry arms, ammunition, rocket factory parts, money, and food into Gaza for Hamas. Rafah also provided an exit for Hamas members who needed to escape.
As a side gig — as the kids say — other Palestinians who wanted to leave Gaza could get a visa through Egypt for about $10,000. In 2016, Al Jazeera reported that brokers were taking as much as 20 percent off the top. That helped to keep the border guards on the right side of the operation.
After hostage negotiations in Qatar stalled, Egypt agreed to chair new sessions in Cairo. The US was pleased.
At the same time — or because of that– the US tried to threaten and cajole Israel into ending the war without defeating Hamas, or entering Rafah. President Joe Biden said. “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying weapons.”
The Washington Post reported that the administration withheld intelligence information from Israel and only offered to “help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels” — if Israel agreed to limit the incursion. The Post characterized the information as “valuable.” An uproar about withholding from Israel to benefit Hamas caused the administration to backtrack, much as it did when it delayed precision arms shipments to Israel.
But administration officials continued to insist that Israel could not achieve success in Rafah. National security adviser Jake Sullivan opined, “A major ground operation [in Rafah] would be a mistake. … [T]he key goals Israel wants to achieve in Rafah can be done by other means.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a definitive position speaking on Face The Nation on May 12. While Israel may have some military success in Rafah, he said, it will be one that “is not durable, one that’s not sustainable. And they will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency because a lot of armed Hamas will be left no matter what they do in Rafah.”
After realizing that Israel was going to take the crossing regardless of the American position, the US turned to Egypt, pleading for supplies to enter, but Cairo wouldn’t budge. Afraid that Israel would expose the whole operation, Egypt even more firmly closed the border, leaving aid trucks “rotting in the sun,” according to Reuters.
That changed when Israel successfully moved more than 900,000 Palestinians out of Rafah and took control of the crossing.
That was the second option.
Egypt has now agreed to move the food through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, not the normal Rafah crossing, which is still closed. But for the people of Gaza, it’s a blessing.
How the Israeli operation Rafah plays out and how Israel ensures the security of its border and of its citizens remains unclear. What is clear, however, is that the American administration’s belief that Israel could not evacuate Rafah civilians safely and take the corridor was wrong. It is also clear that the administration’s power of persuasion with the Egyptian government is limited.
And, finally, it is clear that the Biden people are taking full credit for opening the gates of Rafah.
Shoshana Bryen is Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center.
The post Israel Secured Food Aid to the Palestinians — Not the US or Egypt first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.