Gaza war ‘grave threat’ to Egypt national security, Sisi says after re-election as President

Egyptian President, Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi, said Monday that the Gaza war poses a grave threat to Egypt’s national security, Anadolu Agency reports.

Sisi was re-elected to a third, six-year term in office in last week’s presidential elections, the country’s electoral commission announced early Monday.

Commission chief, Hazem Badawy said 44.7 million Egyptians cast ballots during the polls, out of 67.3 million eligible voters, with a turnout of 66.8 per cent.

According to the official results, Sisi won 89.6 per cent of the valid votes.

In a televised speech after the election results, Sisi said the Egyptian polls represented the world’s rejection of Israel’s “inhumane war on the Gaza Strip, and not simply the election of a President.”

“This war must come to an end, given the grave threat it poses to Egypt’s national security and the untold suffering it has caused Palestinians,” he added.

READ: Egypt rejects deployment of joint forces with Israel on Gaza border

Israel’s air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since the 7 October attack by Hamas have killed at least 19,453 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 52,286 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.

The war has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory’s housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave, amid shortages of food and clean water.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack, while more than 130 hostages remain in captivity.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.