The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisiis one of those most interested in there being peace between Israel and Palestine because it shares a border with both. Egypt plays a key role in the conflict: the country has agreed to allow the entry of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip across its border and will host this Saturday a international summit to address the escalation between Israel and Hamas. But who is Al Sisi?

Al Sisi He came to power in 2013 with a coup d’état against the first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who was imprisoned. For more than a month, Morsi’s supporters took to the streets to demand his return, but to no avail: the military regime opened fire on the protesters, killing more than 600 people.

Since then, anyone who criticizes the power of Al Sisi or the army risks being imprisoned and, according to human rights organizations, today there are around 60,000 political prisoners in Egyptian prisons. Furthermore, it was easy for Al Sisi to win the elections in 2014 and 2018: in the latter, in fact, the already Egyptian president only faced a single opponent, who declared himself a supporter of Al Sisi.

Despite the pardon of some high-profile prisoners, the repression He continues in the country and Al Sisi can run for a third term thanks to a legal reform that he himself promoted, in which he also increased the years of legislature from four to six. The next elections in Egypt are scheduled for December this year and, although he has not yet confirmed his participation, Al Sisi could be in power, at least, until 2030.