Berlin

Egypt and Jordan have refused to take refugees from Palestine even as both blamed Israel for the attacks on a Gaza hospital that left around 500 dead as per Hamas health ministry claims.

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Thousands of Palestinians are currently stuck at the Rafah crossing at the border of Egypt, the only access to the besieged territory not controlled by Israel. As Israel's retaliatory strikes continue to pummel northern Gaza, many Palestinians have moved south of the region and are trying to cross to Egypt.

The border was closed down on October 10 after it was allegedly hit by Israeli warplanes on the Palestinian side three times.

Following a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Jordan King Abdullah II on Tuesday categorically said that neither Egypt nor Jordan would take in an influx of Palestinian refugees.  

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'This is a red line'

Addressing reporters in Berlin on Tuesday, King Abdullah II said, “This is a red line ... no refugees to Jordan and also no refugees to Egypt.”

“This is a situation that has to be handled within Gaza and the West Bank,” he said. “And you don’t have to carry this out on the shoulders of others.”

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Abdullah stressed that there is an urgent need to temper down the escalation of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The whole region is on the brink,” Abdullah said. “This new cycle of violence is leading us towards the abyss,” the Jordanian Monarch added.

"All our efforts are needed to make sure we don't get there," he said.

Egypt's president agrees with Jordan's king

Echoing similar views, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reasoned why they can't let Palestinians in.

"The displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt means the same displacement will take place for Palestinians from the West Bank into Jordan," Sisi warned.

"Subsequently, the Palestinian state that we are talking about and that the world is talking about will become impossible to implement -- because the land is there, but the people are not. Therefore, I warn of the danger of this matter."

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Sisi said Egypt "did not close" the crossing, but that "developments on the ground and the repeated bombings by Israel of the Palestinian side of the crossing have prevented its operation".

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Hundreds of lorries carrying aid have been waiting for six days on the Egyptian side of the crossing, which Israeli aircraft has bombed four times.

Scholz told reporters Berlin and Cairo "are working together to get humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip as quickly as possible."

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