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Why Mideast Neighbors Won't Offer Refuge to Palestinians Stuck in Gaza War Zone
(Fox News) Ruth Marks Eglash - Images of malnourished children and desperate civilians seeking food and water in war-torn Gaza have flooded both mainstream and social media channels in recent weeks. Yet the reaction of the international community is to force those people to keep living in an ever-worsening humanitarian situation. Regional nations in the past have offered refuge to civilians escaping wars in Syria, Iraq and Sudan. But they refuse to address people in Gaza who are desperate to get themselves or their families out of harm's way, even temporarily, until a ceasefire is declared. They also do not address the reality that much of Gaza's housing and civilian infrastructure has been destroyed by five months of fighting and could take years to rebuild. "We are now watching a black comedy scene where Israel is pleading with the Palestinian civilians to empty the areas where Hamas terrorists are hiding, so the Israeli forces can target them, while Arab states and even some Western powers and international organizations are urging and even forcing the Palestinian people to remain in a dangerous territory of war," said Dalia Ziada, director of the MEEM Center for Middle East and East Mediterranean Studies. "These Arab states and international organizations will later blame Israel for carrying out disproportionate attacks in densely populated areas where Hamas terrorists are purposefully hiding among Palestinian civilians." Instead of allowing those fleeing the violence to enter, Egypt, which shares a direct border and land crossing with Gaza, has claimed that opening its doors to Palestinian refugees, even temporarily, would constitute a threat to the country's national security. Other Arab states in the region have not been so eager to allow entry to Palestinian refugees. Some are actively even blocking entry by refusing to issue visas to Palestinian passports holders. Egyptian analyst Ziada said the only way to explain the indifference of Arab countries to the suffering of Palestinian civilians is that "Arab leaders do not really want to carry the burden of rescuing them. They only chose to curse Israel and sing love to the Palestinians....I am sad to say that it is in the best interest of Arab leaders right now for the war to keep going and for the Palestinian civilians to keep suffering, so they have a tool to distract their own people from their failures in running state affairs."