CAIRO, Egypt
Israel and Egypt are engaged in an increasingly public spat over a narrow strip of land between Egypt and Gaza. That strip is the Philadelpi Corridor. The dispute puts Israel in a bind.
Israeli leaders say that to
complete their destruction of Hamas, they must eventually widen their offensive
to Gaza’s southernmost town, Rafah, and take control of the Philadelphi
Corridor, a tiny buffer zone on the border with Egypt that is demilitarized
under the two countries’ 1979 peace accord.
In a news conference last
week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas continues to smuggle
weapons under the border – a claim Egypt vehemently denies — and that the war
cannot end “until we close this breach,” referring to the corridor.
That brought a sharp warning
from Egypt that deploying Israeli troops in the zone, known in Egypt as the
Salaheddin Corridor, will violate the peace deal.
“Any Israeli move in this
direction will lead to a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations,” Diaa
Rashwan, head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said Monday.
Egypt fears that an Israeli
attack on Rafah will push a massive wave of Palestinians fleeing across the
border into its Sinai Peninsula.
More than 1 million
Palestinians – nearly half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million — are crowded
into Rafah and its surroundings on the border, most driven there after fleeing
Israeli bombardment and ground offensives elsewhere in Gaza.
If Israeli troops assault
Rafah, they have nowhere to flee. Palestinians have broken through before: In
2008, early in the blockade imposed on Gaza by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas
takeover, Hamas blew open the border wall. Thousands of people stormed into
Egypt.
Egypt told the Israelis that
before any ground assault on Rafah, Israel must let Palestinians return to
northern Gaza, a senior Egyptian military official involved in coordination
between the two countries told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of
anonymity to talk about the internal discussions.
Israel says it has largely
driven Hamas out of northern Gaza but is likely to resist allowing Palestinians
back in the near term. Israel’s bombardment and ground assault have reduced
much of the north to rubble, leaving many without homes.
The dispute puts Israel in a
bind. If it stops its offensive without taking Rafah, it falls short on its top
war goal of crushing Hamas. If its military pushes to the border, it risks
undermining its peace deal with Egypt — a foundation of stability in the
Mideast for decades — and upsetting its closest ally, the United States.
Israel and the U.S. are already divided over Gaza's post-war future. The Israeli military is working to create an informal buffer zone about a kilometer (half a mile) wide inside Gaza along the border with Israel to prevent militants from attacking nearby communities. The U.S. says it opposes any attempt by Israel to shrink Gaza’s territory.
Israel vows to expunge the
militants from the entire Gaza Strip and has done so by a strategy of
systematic destruction, at a huge cost in civilian lives. Starting in north
Gaza, it leveled large swaths of the urban landscape, saying it was eliminating
Hamas tunnels and infrastructure while battling militants. It is working its
way down the territory, doing the same in central Gaza and the southern city of
Khan Younis.
Netanyahu has said Israel
intends to keep open-ended security control over Gaza to ensure Hamas cannot
repeat its October 7 attacks that triggered Israel’s assault. He has been vague
on what form that would take but said ensuring control over the Philadelphi
Corridor is crucial.
“There are a few options on
how we can close it, we are checking all of them, and we haven’t made a
decision, except for one thing: It must be closed,” he said.
Egypt warned Israel and the
U.S. that any military operations in the zone “could tear apart our peace,” a
second Egyptian official said. “We will not tolerate such a move.” The official
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the
press.
The corridor is a narrow strip
– about 100 meters (yards) wide in parts – running the 14-kilometer (8.6-mile)
length of the Gaza side of the border with Egypt. It includes the Rafah
crossing into Egypt, Gaza's sole outlet not controlled by Israel.
The corridor is part of a
larger demilitarized zone along both sides of the entire Israel-Egypt border.
Under the peace accord, each side is allowed to deploy only a tiny number of
troops or border guards in the zone. At the time of the accord, Israeli troops
controlled Gaza, until Israel withdrew its forces and settlers in 2005.
Hamas has had free rein of the
border since its 2007 takeover.
Smuggling tunnels were dug
under the Gaza-Egypt border to get around the Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Some
of the tunnels were massive, large enough for vehicles. Hamas brought in
weapons and supplies, and Gaza residents smuggled in commercial goods, from livestock
to construction materials.
That changed over the past
decade, as Egypt battled Islamic militants in the Sinai. The Egyptian military
cracked down on the tunnels and destroyed hundreds of them, saying they were
being used to funnel weapons into the Sinai. It bolstered its border wall above
and below ground and cleared the population from a 5-kilometer-deep (3-mile)
area adjacent to Gaza where only military and police forces are allowed.
During the fight against Sinai
militants, Egypt negotiated with Israel and the U.S. to allow the deployment of
its military in Zone C, as the demilitarized zone is known on its side of the
border.
In mid-December, Israel made
an official request to Egypt to deploy its forces in the Philadelphi corridor,
the Egyptian military official said. Egypt rejected the request. Egypt’s main
fear is that any ground operation in the area would result in thousands of
Palestinians storming into Sinai, he said.
Since the war began, Egypt has
pushed back hard against calls that it take in a mass exodus of Palestinians.
It fears Israel won't allow them to return to Gaza and says it doesn’t want to
abet ethnic cleansing. It also warned that militants from Gaza could enter the
Sinai with those fleeing, bringing the potential for cross-border exchanges
with Israel that could wreck the peace accord.
Israel contends it must have
control over the border to prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas.
Rashwan, of Egypt’s State
Information Service, called Israeli claims of continued smuggling “lies"
aimed at justifying a takeover of the corridor. After destroying 1,500 tunnels,
Egypt has “complete control” over the border, he said.
Kobi Michael, senior
researcher with Israeli think tanks Institute for National Security Studies and
the Misgav Institute, said the quantity of Hamas weapons found during the
offensive shows smuggling continues and Israel must have power to monitor the border.
“The only way such quantities
of weapons could have reached the Gaza Strip are via the Philadelphi Corridor,”
he said.
But Alon Ben-David, military
affairs correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13 TV, said 90% of the weapons in
Gaza were produced in Gaza and that Egypt’s crackdown largely shut down
smuggling.
“The tunnels were really taken
care of comprehensively by the Egyptians,” he said.
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