Egypt steps up Gaza role after brokering last year’s truce

After years of behind-the-scenes activity in the Gaza Strip, Egypt is going public.

Since mediating a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group, Egypt has sent crews to clear rubble and is promising to build vast new apartment complexes. Egyptian flags and billboards praising President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi have sprung up across the Palestinian territory.

It is a new look for the Egyptians, who have spent years working quietly to encourage Israel-Hamas truce talks and reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions.

The shift could help prevent, or at least delay, another round of violence. By presenting itself as a Mideast peacemaker, Egypt could also blunt efforts by the Biden administration and some U.S. lawmakers to hold the country accountable for human rights abuses.

The 11-day Gaza war last May "allowed Egypt to once again market itself as an indispensable security partner for Israel in the region, which it is, which in turn makes it an indispensable security partner for the U.S.," said Hafsa Halawa, an expert on Egypt at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank.

"Gaza is a reminder to everybody, effectively, that you can't really do anything without Egypt," she said.

The expanded aid, along with its control over Rafah, the only Gaza border crossing that bypasses Israel, gives Egypt leverage over Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza since driving out forces loyal to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Egypt joined Israel in imposing a crippling blockade on the territory after the Hamas takeover, but both countries have recently taken steps to ease the restrictions, tacitly acknowledging that Hamas rule is here to stay.

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