Netanyahu wanted EU leaders 'to pressure Egypt' to accept refugees

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lobbied EU leaders to use their influence with Egypt to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza, according to a Financial Times report on Monday.

The British paper said EU members including the Czech Republic and Austria had floated the idea at a meeting of member states last month.

Represenatives from countries including France and Germany believe that the idea is a non-starter as Egypt categorically refuses to accept Palestinian refugees.

An unnamed diplomat from an unnamed country, however, told the Financial Times that the pressure of Israel's continued assault on Gaza could shift Cairo's stance.

"Now the time is to put increased pressure on the Egyptians to agree," the official said.

Egypt does not want a Palestinian influx within its borders as it recalls memories of the Nakba in 1948, in which Zionist militias forcibly expelled more than 700,000 Palestinians from historic Palestine and prohibited them and their descendants from ever returning.

The fear among Arab states and the Palestinians themselves is that any expulsion of people from Gaza would be permanent.

Cairo has vociferously rejected any new forced expulsion of Palestinians but Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is also a close Western ally.