Egypt's role

When Egyptian activists organized an aid convoy to Gaza last month, their challenge took on political dimensions. When the convoy of more than 500 activists, 11 buses and 2.3 million Egyptian pounds ($320,000) of medical aid cruised into a government checkpoint near the city of Arish in North Sinai, scuffles with army personnel broke out and it was turned back to Cairo.

The government cited security concerns, but for the activists, it was political.

"The government showed its real stance when we were stopped from delivering medical aid," Ibrahim Ahmed, a 19-year-old student at the American University of Cairo who helped organize the convoy, told DW. "It's not about Hamas, or about politics, or religion. We are talking about people who are dying and need medication, so why stop us?"

Since the onslaught of the war in Gaza, the Egyptian government has effectively aligned with Israel in a fight against Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. But in a country where support for the Palestinian cause has long been entrenched in the minds of the population, some say it is becoming increasingly difficult for Egypt to balance the government's antipathy toward Hamas.

"It's very clear to us on the outside that there is a convergence of interest between Egypt and Israel," Khaled Elgindy, a former adviser to Palestinian negotiators who is now a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told DW. "But obviously, that is not how it is being projected domestically."

Pressure on Palestinians

Egypt has long been seen as a regional leader and mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but with the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Hamas, a fierce campaign against the Palestinian group has been waged.

"Thank god Egypt is with us now. It would not be possible to meet the targets of this invasion without their cooperation," said Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz in an interview with Israeli television the day the ground invasion in Gaza began.

Over the past year, Egypt has destroyed tunnels that served as a lifeline for Gaza and used the courts to implicate Hamas in plots against the state. With the exception of a few humanitarian cases, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has kept the border crossing with the enclave closed during the past month of fighting, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.

With images of dead civilians flooding out of Gaza combined with the fact that Israelis have been very open about their pleasure with Egypt, Elgindy said el-Sissi is in a "very precarious place."

"They can get away with this narrative in Israel and the US for a very long time that this is Hamas' fault, that they are destabilizing Egypt, that if only they would accept our wonderful ceasefire there wouldn't be this tragedy," said Elgindy. "But I don't think that narrative can hold in Egypt for very long."

Bigger cause

Other experts agree. "It is a cause that is bigger than Hamas, bigger than the Palestinians, it's an Arab cause, a Muslim cause, and it is one that has also been used by leaders to deflect attention locally," Fadi Elsalameen, political commentator and fellow at the American Security Project, told DW.

But while support for Palestinians has been engrained in Egyptian minds, this time it has been harder to gauge public opinion. Unlike in major cities in Europe and the US, there were fewer protests in Egypt amid a shrinking space for public dissent.

"Whenever I talk to someone about having a protest in front of the Israeli embassy, they all say the same answer, 'having a protest is like suicide,' because you have the new protest which is sending people to jail," said Ahmed, the student who helped with the aid convoy.

The Palestinian cause has long been seen as a rallying point for Egyptian discontent with the government. Prior to the country's 2011 revolution, many activists say it enabled the political opposition to organize itself, thus becoming a threat to the state.

"They want to control the messaging, and they don't want this to be a source of public dissent or something which people can mobilize around," said Elgindy. "This is one of the reasons the government turned the convoy back."

As the death toll continues to surge, balancing the government's loathing of political Islam with the citizens' sympathy for the Palestinian cause is a task that is growing ever more challenging for el-Sissi.

"Every day that goes by it becomes harder to maintain the official narrative of blaming Hamas, and they have to decide whether the costs of losing credibility as a key regional player and supporter of the Palestinians begin to outweigh the benefits of crushing Hamas," said Elgindy.

Subtle shift

In recent days, the government has begun showing signs of a shift. On Friday, Egypt's Foreign Ministry condemned the indiscriminate targeting of civilians after at least 25 people were killed following Israeli shelling of the southern town of Rafah in Gaza.

Then, having previously refused to revise their original ceasefire proposal despite its failure, Egypt announced renewed mediation efforts.

On Monday night, Hamas and Israel announced they would agree to the terms of Egypt's proposed 72-hour ceasefire. The new agreement proposes that delegations from all sides then attend further talks in Cairo. While it remains to be seen if the agreement will hold, it marks a significant shift in strained relations between Cairo and the Palestinian factions.

"The regime was silent for the first several weeks and now they just started criticizing Israel, calling them atrocities, the usual rhetoric," said Elgindy. "But at the same time, just by saying those words, it raises a certain expectation in the public that if you call those things atrocities, it's now not just Hamas to blame, it's now both sides, so now you have to do something about it."