UAE slams 'offensive' Israeli statements blaming Egypt for Gaza weapons smuggling

The UAE has accused Israel of threatening regional stability after a top Netanyahu advisor said arms and weapons have been smuggled into Gaza through Egypt despite President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s vow to prevent it.

“We have cut off the supply lines of weapons, we aren’t going to open that supply line without having a solution on the ground that works,” Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer told Bloomberg, when asked about Israel's military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border. 

He said he wasn’t “questioning the intentions” of Egypt but was “questioning the results”.

The allegations mark an escalation in Israel’s criticism of Egypt.

The UAE’s statement expressed “its full solidarity with the Arab Republic of Egypt in the face of Israeli allegations and claims regarding the Philadelphi crossing, and strongly condemns and denounces the offensive Israeli statements in this regard, which threaten stability and exacerbate the situation in the region".