Egypt denies arrangements with U.S. for Palestinians to leave Gaza

Egypt denied on Monday reports about arrangements with the U.S. to prepare a list of Palestinian patients and students to exit the Gaza Strip amid a deadly Israeli onslaught on the enclave.

Reports were circulated on social media about a phone call between Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss registering patients and students seeking to leave Gaza.

"These reports are groundless," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abou Zeid said in a statement.

He added that there was no phone call between the two chief diplomats.

"It's not true that there are any arrangements of this kind," he added, without further details.

Last month, the Israeli army captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, the enclave's only window to the outside world on Egypt's border.

Ever since, the terminal has been closed, worsening the already difficult humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory.

Early Monday, Egypt's state-affiliated Al-Qahera News channel, citing a senior Egyptian source, reiterated Egypt's refusal to run the Rafah crossing in coordination with Israel.

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the U.S. to reach a permanent cease-fire deal in Gaza, have been deadlocked.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack last year by Hamas.

More than 37,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 86,100 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.