Fig leaf to undermine Egypt? Why Israel opened Kissufim crossing

Israel’s claim that it will now provide humanitarian aid to Gaza through a newly reopned crossing could be little more than a ploy reflecting fears in Tel Aviv from a partial embargo on arms supplies from the US while undermining Egyptian influence over the besieged territory, experts have told The New Arab.

Just before an ostensible American deadline to improve conditions in Gaza, Israel claimed this week that it planned to open a new crossing into Gaza at Kissufim, a kibbutz in the Negev, to allow hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including food, into the centre of Gaza every day.  

In a way, the opening of the crossing is symbolic. Kissufim was one of several kibbutzim attacked by Hamas on October 7 last year.  

Israel discontinued the use of the same crossing for military purposes, soon after its 2005 unilateral disengagement from Gaza.  

However, Kissufim returned to operate when Israel started its ongoing retribution against Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 attacks, having been used in ground incursions by Israeli forces into the centre of Gaza. 

Apart from re-operating the crossing, Israel also claimed it will allow aid to trickle into northern Gaza through the Erez crossing and expand the humanitarian zone it established in Mawasi, a coastal area in south-western Gaza, where the vast majority of the population of the Palestinian enclave is crammed in abysmal conditions.

Credible fears 

These possible moves coincide with a hard to believe 13 November deadline set by the administration of outgoing US President, Joe Biden, for the Israeli army to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza. 

The deadline, stipulated in a letter sent to the Israeli government by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, a month ago, came against the background of deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza. But on Tuesday, the United States said Israel was not violating US law on the level of aid entering Gaza, despite failing to meet the objectives set by Washington to improve the flow of humanitarian relief into the war-hit enclave.

“There is apparent concern in Israel over this issue,” Ayman al-Raqab, a professor of political science at Al-Quds University, told The New Arab.  

“Nonetheless, there are doubts about whether the American threats can dissuade Israel from using hunger as a weapon against the Palestinians,” he added.  

Gaza’s population of almost 2.4 million receive only a sliver of their food and drinking water needs, with the Israeli army bringing the amounts of aid entering their territory down to a minimum, a policy aiming at tightening the noose around Hamas but which amounts to collective punishment under international law.  

By using hunger as a weapon, Israel is driving the people of Gaza to the brink of famine, especially in northern Gaza, a fact mentioned recently in a report by international food security experts.  

Food is, however, only a portion of what is needed in Gaza where the hospitals that have not been destroyed so far suffer an acute shortage of medicines and medical supplies. Some of these hospitals have already stopped operating.  

Israel cannot hide its fear, analysts said, from the ramifications of failure to meet the American November 13 deadline, with the Biden administration threatening to withhold military assistance to Tel Aviv.  

There are equal fears among Israeli officials from a possible declaration by the World Health Organization of a state of famine in Gaza, in the light of the aforementioned report by the global food security experts.  

Such a declaration can fuel action against Israel at the UN Security Council, which will add to cases against Tel Aviv at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.   

Full control 

With less than 70 days remaining for Biden in office, it is not clear how long or to what extent Israel will be committed to delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza, its claims nonewithstanding. 

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, must be counting the days until January 20, when the new resident of the White House arrives. 

So far, Netanyahu has talked to US President-elect, Donald Trump, three times on the phone and, according to media reports, he sees eye-to-eye with him on a wide range of issues. Gaza might be one of these issues.  

Israel’s plan to expand access to humanitarian aid in this Palestinian territory comes only days after the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) passed a law, banning UNRWA, the main UN agency that delivers aid to its people, after linking it to terrorism, an absurd charge denied by UNRWA and the UN.  

By controlling the entry and the distribution of the aid, Israel can also manage aid records as well as the whole aid narrative on the road to evading international criticism against the background of the exacerbating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.  

Sidelining Egypt?

By taking the same move, Israel will shove aside all other aid players in Gaza, especially Egypt, so far the only entry point for aid into the war-battered territory. 

Cairo will of course be happy to see the aid entering Gaza increasing, something it has been calling for since the start of the current war. 

Apart from any human considerations, Egypt is afraid that Gaza’s intensifying humanitarian crisis will force hundreds of thousands of hungry Palestinians to clamber into it, in a repetition of scenes created in 2008 by Israel’s closure of all its border crossings with Gaza. 

Nevertheless, by taking full control of the entry and distribution of aid into and in Gaza, Israel will reduce Egyptian influence in this neighbouring territory.  

Over the years, Egypt acquired part of its relevance to Gaza from being the only entry and exit point into and out of the coastal enclave, particularly after Israel closed its border crossings with it in the wake of Hamas’ 2007 violent takeover in it.  

This relevance increased even more after October 7, 2023, with aid arriving from all parts of the world for Gaza, and Sinai, the north-eastern Egyptian territory sharing borders with Israel and Gaza, functioning as a humanitarian aid hub for the war-torn Strip.  

In May this year, Egypt shuttered its side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, after Israel occupied the Palestinian side of the crossing. 

The Egyptian move aimed to deny Israel’s occupation of the Gaza side of the crossing the privilege of recognition. Nonetheless, the same move reduced the amount of aid entering Gaza dramatically, thus limiting Egyptian leverage.  

Egypt used the same leverage to influence Hamas, which enabled Cairo to play an important role in ceasefire and prisoner/hostage swap talks between the Palestinian group and Israel in the past months.  

It is not clear where Israel will get the aid it will enter into the centre of Gaza from Kissufim or into northern Gaza from Erez from and whether it will continue to depend on aid accumulating in the Sinai hub.  

Nevertheless, with Hamas in its last-gasp show in Gaza and Israel taking control of the entry of aid into the Palestinian territory, Egypt will probably need to rediscover its other strengths to remain relevant to the conflict in this neighbouring region, analysts said. 

“These strengths, I believe, include Egypt’s proximity to Gaza, its close relations with Tel Aviv and its sponsorship of the Palestinian Authority, the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” Emad Gad, a senior researcher of Egyptian think tank, al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told TNA.