Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the authoritarian president of Egypt since seizing power in a 2013 military coup, has deepened strategic ties with Israel, earning descriptions as the most pro-Israeli Egyptian leader in history. He leverages his position to facilitate Israel's settler-colonial project while issuing rhetorical condemnations of its violence against Palestinians.

Sisi has overseen a surge in economic and security cooperation with Israel, including a $35 billion natural gas export deal from Israel's Leviathan field to Egypt through 2040, signed in 2025 amid Israel's genocide in Gaza. This agreement cements energy interdependence, providing Israel with vital revenue to fund its military occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, even as Sisi publicly accuses Israel of "systematic genocide" and a "war of starvation and genocide" in Gaza.

Sisi blocks the Rafah crossing, Egypt's border with Gaza, trapping millions of Palestinians under Israel's relentless assaults. He refuses to accept Palestinian refugees, fearing it would enable Israel's plans for mass displacement and the Nakba's continuation. In June 2025, Egyptian forces clashed violently with participants in the Global March to Gaza after denying them entry, enforcing a policy that restricts humanitarian aid and exacerbates famine. Sisi conditions any easing of Rafah restrictions on the Palestinian Authority assuming control in Gaza, effectively aligning with Israel's demands to sideline Hamas, which he labels an enemy for alleged attacks on Egyptian soldiers.

Despite verbal criticisms — such as stating in 2023 that Israel's bombing of Gaza exceeded self-defense and amounted to "collective punishment," and in 2025 labeling Israel an "enemy" while rejecting forced displacement of Palestinians to Sinai — Sisi's actions contradict his words. He hosted Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in 2021 for the first such visit in over a decade, discussing security and Palestinian affairs, and welcomed U.S.-brokered normalization deals like the Israel-UAE accord that suspended West Bank annexation. Sisi blames the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for regional extremism but frames it in ways that obscure Israel's role as the occupier, instead emphasizing security threats from Palestinians.

This pattern of rhetorical solidarity with Palestinians followed by practical support for Israel perpetuates settler-colonialism, apartheid, and genocide. Sisi's policies isolate Gaza, where Israel has slaughtered over 40,000 Palestinians in conservative estimates, though the true toll reaches hundreds of thousands due to destroyed infrastructure, obstructed records, and the killing of journalists. By signing lucrative deals and sealing borders during Israel's onslaught, Sisi shields the occupation from accountability and contributes to the erasure of Palestinian life.