CAIRO: The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and France have warned of the “dangerous consequences” if Israel goes ahead with its threatened military offensive in Rafah.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, King Abdullah and President Emmanuel Macron also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions relating to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Rafah, a city in southern Gaza close to the border with Egypt, has become the last refuge for more than 1.5 million Palestinian civilians, many of them displaced by Israeli military operations in other parts of the territory.

The leaders’ comments came in a joint op-ed article published simultaneously in several Egyptian, Arab, French and American newspapers.

They wrote: “The war in Gaza and the catastrophic humanitarian suffering it is causing must end now. Violence, terror and war cannot bring peace to the Middle East. The two-state solution will. It is the only credible path to guaranteeing peace and security for all and ensuring that neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis ever have to relive the horrors that have befallen them since the Oct. 7 attacks.”

They called for the immediate release of all hostages, an increase in the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, and warned that an Israeli offensive in Rafah “will only bring more death and suffering, heighten the risks and consequences of mass forcible displacement of the people of Gaza, and threaten regional escalation.”