Egypt’s leader incorrectly claims his country never persecuted Jewish people

The comments came following a meeting between Sisi and Blinken, who traveled to Egypt, Israel, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to meet with leaders across the Middle East. He is there to discuss the conflict between Israel and Hamas that exploded last week after the Palestinian militant group launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel from Gaza.

Israel has since commenced a siege of Gaza, firing its own barrage of retaliatory missiles and killing more than 2,000 Palestinians, while restricting access to food and electricity in the region that’s long been blockaded by Israel and Egypt.

While addressing reporters alongside Blinken, Sisi criticized Israel’s reaction to the attack.

“We are facing here a huge crisis, and I’m quite concerned about the reaction — they just overextend the right of self-defense, and it turns into a [collective] punishment of 2.3 million Palestinians,” Sisi said, according to a transcript provided by the State Department.

Blinken responded by condemning the “atrocities” committed by Hamas, and by promising to stand against the militant group.

“I come first and foremost as a human being, a human being like so many others appalled at the atrocities committed by Hamas,” Blinken said. “We’re determined to stand against Hamas and what it has done, and to make sure that it can’t happen again.”