Egypt, UAE, Jordan exports to Israel rise despite war on Gaza

Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has revealed that exports from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan to the regime have surged compared to the previous year, despite the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza.

In a report published on Thursday, the CBS said the Egyptian exports to Israel in May 2024 amounted to $25 million, double that of the same period in 2023.

Cairo has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas in the current war on Gaza and maintained ties with the occupying regime since it signed an unpopular peace treaty with Tel Aviv in 1979.

The growing exports came while relations between the sides have become increasingly strained since October due to Cairo's fears of Israeli plans to force Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip to relocate to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.

In May, border tensions escalated when Israel captured the Gaza side of the vital Rafah border crossing, a lifeline to the outside world for Palestinians in Gaza, and a sensitive corridor of land along Egypt’s border with the besieged strip, code named by the Israeli military as “the Philadelphi Corridor”.

Also in May, an Egyptian soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with the Israeli forces near the crossing. Both sides said they were investigating the incident, which is believed to have been a revenge attack for the massacres committed in Gaza.

According to the figures, Emirati exports to Israel also increased from $238.5 million in May 2023 to $242 million in the same month of this year.

Jordan’s exports to Israel also continued to increase in 2024, reaching $35.7 million in May 2024, compared to $32.3 million in May last year.

The surge in Jordanian exports came while the country has been witnessing pro-Palestine rallies since the eruption of the Israeli war on Gaza, with the protesters calling on the government to close the Israeli embassy and end the 1994 peace treaty that normalized ties with Israel.

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Meanwhile, Israeli statistics showed that Turkish exports to Israel dropped by over half in 2024 compared to the previous year. The decline came as Turkey’s trade ministry recently imposed restrictions on exports to the regime over the war in Gaza.

Still, the value of exports is higher than that of Egypt and Jordan combined as it hit $116.8 million in May 2024, down from $376.6 million in May 2023.

The growing trade comes as Muslim protesters from across the world have been calling for an economic boycott of the Israeli regime because of its war on Gaza. 

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas mounted the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 37,431 Palestinians and injured 85,653 more.

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