Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi said on Wednesday his country has always kept open the Rafah border crossing, the only access into the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel.
“Egypt has never closed the crossing, but to be able to act in a fighting situation, we have to be cautious not to cause a problem,” he said at a televised ceremony in Cairo, referring to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
“From the first day, we have been very keen that the Rafah crossing becomes an avenue to deliver aid.”
Al-Sissi hoped that a mediated ceasefire deal will be reached soon between Israel and the Palestinian militant organization Hamas to allow for the start of “real relief in different fields” for the people in the densely populated Gaza Strip.
Egypt, the the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, is worried about a potential mass exodus of Gazans into its territory.
Despite ongoing negotiations to reach a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas movement in the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressing ahead with a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and restricting humanitarian aid.
According to the United Nations, a possible attack on the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip could have devastating consequences.
Hundreds of thousands of people who have fled from bombing and attacks in the north of the Gaza Strip are now crammed into Rafah in extremely limited space.
Meanwhile, the al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, on Wednesday claimed that it fired more that 40 rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel to avenge the continued Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
"Al-Qassam Brigades bombed from southern Lebanon the headquarters of the 769th Eastern Brigade, Camp Ghaybour and the airport barracks in Beit Hilal" in northern Israel, the movement said in a statement posted on their Telegram channel.
It added that the rocket attack was in response to "massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip and the assassination of the martyred leaders and their [Hezbollah] brothers in the southern suburbs of Lebanon."
The Israeli army said sirens sounded in the area of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel earlier on Wednesday after approximately 10 launches that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel were identified.
Sirens wailed again in northern Israel on Wednesday afternoon. There were initially no reports of injuries.
According to the army, the military infrastructure of the Shiite militia Hezbollah was also hit in the attacks near Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah initially did not comment on the incidents in the border region.
In response the Israeli army struck the sources of the firing in Lebanon and fighter jets struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility and military structures in the area of Ramyeh in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
Lebanese security sources confirmed the strikes and said the planes hit Beit Leef and Ramyeh in southern Lebanon, adding that Israeli planes were still flying at low altitude across south Lebanon.
The intense violence in southern Lebanon has prompted UN officials to warn against the deteriorating situation.
UN special coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka, called for "an immediate halt to this dangerous cycle of violence."
Since the Gaza war broke out on October 7 after Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel and took some 240 people hostage, Israel's conflict with Hezbollah has intensified along the Israeli-Lebanese border with casualties on both sides.
