US considers the EU Border Mission to Monitor Rafah Crossing
Police cited senior Biden administration officials: A European Union border assistance mission is being created to oversee the Rafah crossing. Concentrating on the mentioned source, media have made several reports about the European Union Border Assistance Mission at the Rafah crossing point (EUBAM Rafah) holding talks with the U. S. officials on the takeover of the crossing that has remained closed since 7 May 2004 due to Israel’s invasion of Rafah.
EUBAM Rafah is to monitor and observe the situation at the cross-border point as a third-party presence at the Rafah Crossing Point (RCP). Today, EUBAM Rafah has a standby role: “Ensuring improved capacity of Palestinian Authority border agencies,” declared in the mission’s mandate. EUBAM Rafah used to monitor the crossing up to June 2007, when the crossing was closed by Egypt due to Hamas control of the Gaza Strip, enabling the crossing only in August 2015.
The U. S. proposition to reinstall EUBAM Rafah comes when there is no progress between Egyptian and Israeli officials on the running of the crossing. Whereas Egyptian authorities call for the control of the Rafah crossing to be transferred to Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli side is offered a new modality for it, claiming past scenarios where Hamas staff operate the crossing.
Currently, the situation is that during the armed confrontation, the Israeli forces have taken over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing. This crossing has proven vital as the main entry point for humanitarian aid and the only exit for Palestinians since the conflict started in October. For more than two weeks, no humanitarian consignment has been delivered to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which has affected humanitarian conditions in the area.
Reporting on the events in January, EUBAM Rafah’s head of mission, Nataliya Apostolova, also commented on the ongoing debate about further activity prospects after Israel stopped shelling Gaza. At the time of writing this article, the EU border assistance mission was not mentioned in responding to requests for comment regarding this information.
Specifically, by identifying and highlighting Egypt for not assisting in the movement of aid through the Rafah crossing, this paper finds that the U. S Secretary of State Antony Blinken shares in the targeting and demonisation of Palestinians. ”We do strongly urge our Egyptian partners to do everything they can on their end to make sure that assistance is flowing,” Blinken said at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.
In his turn, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry pointed to the risks that are imminent for the representatives of the delivery of humanitarian aid and the truck drivers given the military monitoring by Israel near the Rafah crossing. Egyptians have mediated between Israel and the Palestinians in the current conflict and have enjoyed diplomatically friendly relations with Israel for 45 years since the foundation of the Camp David Treaty signed by the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the Israelite Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1978.
The military invasion of the Rafah area is also illegitimate because it violates several provisions of the 1979 Egyptian-Israel peace treaty since Egypt had warned Israel of the consequences of such invasion. It has been followed closely by mixed feelings, with some people questioning if the end of the long-standing bilateral political, social, and economic friendship between the two countries is near.
Addressing a news channel, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Egypt is holding the people of Gaza ‘hostage’ for not cooperating with Israel to open the crossing. Egypt responded by stating that it might pull out of the negotiations based on “attempted doubts over its role as an aid provider. ”
The UN and other international organizations remain vigilant, expecting a favourable outcome and aiming to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.
