On February 4, 2026, the Egyptian state daily Al-Ahram published a scathing article against Israel and its government by journalist Abd Al-Muhsen Salama, a former chairman of the paper's board of directors.
Writing after the February 1 opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Israel, Salama claimed that the one who had closed the crossing during the Gaza war was the “Israeli enemy” and not Egypt, while Egypt had actually refused to comply with “Israel's terrorist plans.”
He added that “Israel is controlled today by a group of Jewish terrorists who are no better than ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the rest of the terrorist organizations,” and therefore called on the international coalition against terrorism to fight this Israeli terrorism “just as it fights these terrorist groups and their ilk, before it is too late.”
It should be noted that this virulent rhetoric that treats Israel as an enemy reflects Egypt's growing alignment with the anti-Israel bloc that is currently being formed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
