Israeli report: Sisi offered Abbas a Palestinian state in Sinai

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi offered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a Palestinian state in northern Sinai, according to a report Monday on Israel’s Army Radio.

The station claimed that during recent discussions between the two men, Sisi proposed that 1,600km2 of the Sinai adjacent to the Gaza Strip would be ceded to create an area five times larger than the current territory of Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority would have “autonomy” in West Bank cities, and Israel would not be required to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines.

Abbas rejected the reported offer, though today, Israel’s Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri called the proposal “worth discussing seriously”.