Title: Egypt: Israel Threatens Efforts for a Ceasefire

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated today, Tuesday, that "Israel threatens the strenuous efforts being made to reach a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza," urging "all influential international parties to intervene with Israel and defuse the crisis." The Egyptian Foreign Ministry called on Israel to "refrain from its dangerously escalatory brinkmanship." It remarked that "the serious escalation in Rafah threatens the lives of more than one million Palestinians." This comes at a time when the Israeli army announced its complete control over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing separating the Gaza Strip from Egyptian territory, in a military operation that began yesterday, Monday.