Egypt Is Legally Obliged To Protect Gaza Civilians

Lawyer and Member of the Legislative Committee in the People"s Assembly Sobhy Saleh confirmed in his statements to Ikhwanweb that by virtue of international humanitarian law and article 30 of the 4th Geneva Accord Egypt is obliged to protect Gaza civilians, send humanitarian relief and aid to them, open the Rafah crossings for the patients and war-wounded, and do all that is necessary to relieve the civilians of Gaza.

Saleh added that the 4th Geneva Accord necessitates that countries send and permit access to humanitarian aid for civilians even if they were from the enemy country and considered the lawsuit filed by the Egyptian lawyers requesting the opening of the Rafah crossings an obligatory step coinciding with people"s similar requests.

Saleh pointed out that the government"s prosecution will argue that the crossing is a sovereign matter; therefore it should not be subject to judicial monitoring, while lawyers will base their arguments on humanitarian international law.

Commenting on the Egyptian government"s approach of not executing judicial rulings that don"t comply with its policy, Saleh explained that if the judicature rules in favor of the lawsuit but the government doesn"t execute the court"s decision, as it has done in other cases, it will be another proof of the illegitimacy of the regime which will then be considered as having stolen power affirming that this will have extremely dangerous impacts.

It is worth mentioning that Egyptian lawyers filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian government to open the Rafah crossings which had been closed during the siege imposed by Israeli occupation in the face of several humanitarian relief convoys which had come to rescue the people of Gaza from Israeli aggression.