Despite international warnings of an inevitable humanitarian catastrophe to come, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to launch a ground offensive on Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, near the Egyptian border.

In a television speech, he declared, on February 7, that he had ordered the army to "prepare" such an operation against this city, which had become a gigantic, overcrowded encampment where, according to the UN, 1.4 million refugees of Palestinians. Men, women and children who have fled the war that has been raging for four months between Israel and Hamas.

Sunday February 11, on the American channel ABC News, Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed that Israel will ensure “safe passage for the civilian population so that they can leave” Rafah, described as Hamas’ “last bastion”. Without saying where, precisely, Gazans could take refuge, he mentioned areas north of Rafah which could be used as safe zones for civilians.

© Studio Graphique France Médias Monde

It is in this context that eyes are once again turning to the "Philadelphia Corridor", a route traced along the border of the Gaza Strip with Egypt, from the Mediterranean coast to the point opposite the Kerem Shalom passage. The latter is controlled by the Israeli army and is located at the border meeting point between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Fearing a massive influx of refugees and its possible consequences, Egypt has deployed around 40 tanks and armored personnel carriers to northeastern Sinai over the past two weeks. According to two Egyptian security sources interviewed by Reuters, this deployment is part of a series of measures aimed at strengthening security on the border with Gaza.

A strategic corridor at the heart of tensions

Named after a code name given by the Israeli army and also known as the "Saladin Corridor", the "Philadelphia Corridor" is a buffer zone, 14 kilometers long and 100 meters wide, in place in accordance with the terms of the Camp David Accords signed by Egypt and Israel in September 1978.

Its objective: to prevent any armed incursion, control the movement of Palestinians in both directions, and arms trafficking between Egyptian Sinai and the Gaza Strip.

© Studio Graphique France Médias Monde

Delimited by barbed wire fences, the height of which varies between two and three meters, and concrete blocks, the corridor was under the control of the Jewish state until the unilateral withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

As part of this withdrawal decided by the government of Ariel Sharon, Israel and Egypt signed an agreement, known as the Philadelphia Agreement, providing for the deployment of a contingent of 750 Egyptian border guards along the buffer zone (on the Egyptian side). They were the first Egyptian soldiers to patrol this area since the 1967 war, during which the Gaza Strip, then administered by Egypt, and the Sinai Peninsula were conquered by Israel. The agreement in question went so far as to very precisely define the equipment of the Egyptian contingent, namely 8 helicopters, 30 light armored vehicles and 4 speedboats.

Their mission was to monitor the corridor on the Egyptian side, the only border in the Gaza Strip beyond the direct control of the Israeli army, to fight against terrorism and to prevent any act of infiltration and smuggling.

On the other side of the corridor, it was the security forces of the Palestinian Authority who took over from the Israelis, before being chased out two years later, in June 2007, by Hamas thanks to its coup. force against Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah.

In response, Israel decided to impose a blockade – land, sea and air – and an embargo on the territory now in the hands of the Islamist movement. These restrictions favor the development of a system of smuggling tunnels, necessarily passing under the no man's land between Gaza and Egypt, allowing goods and people to cross the border, and whose existence has been documented by Israel since 1983. 

Since then, while the Rafah terminal controlled by Egypt and from where people, goods and humanitarian aid transit, has only been open intermittently since 2007, Israel sees this area as vital for the supply of the Hamas.

In December 2007, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Egypt was doing a "poor" job of trying to stop arms smuggling under the "Philadelphia corridor."

Already in 2009, at the time of Operation “Cast Lead”, Israeli military plans provided for the occupation of the “Philadelphia Corridor” in order to destroy the smuggling tunnels there. An occupation which would, de facto, have made it possible to completely encircle the Gaza Strip.

After the dismissal, in July 2013, of President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas emerged, the Egyptian army undertook to destroy hundreds of smuggling tunnels dug under the border with the Gaza Strip. It was a reprisal against the Palestinian Islamist movement accused by Cairo of participating in the destabilization of Sinai. To destroy this underground system, Egypt deliberately flooded the border area in 2015.

A corridor now openly in Netanyahu’s sights

After the attacks of October 7, perpetrated by Hamas and its allies, unprecedented in their scale and their human toll on Israeli soil, eyes were once again turned towards the "Philadelphia corridor", more than ever perceived as strategic for Hamas, and regularly targeted by the Israeli army since the start of the war in Gaza.

"The 'Philadelphia Corridor' must be in our hands and under our control, and any arrangement other than that will not be accepted by Israel," said Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of December, whose government promised to "liquidate" the Palestinian movement.

The Israeli Prime Minister has repeatedly reiterated this threat, so much so that Cairo takes it very seriously.

According to Salah Gomaa, deputy editor-in-chief of the official Egyptian agency Al-Charq al-Awsat, the risk of displacement of Gazans towards Egypt which could result is of great concern to the Egyptian authorities.

Since the start of the conflict, President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, who plays the role of mediator between Hamas and the Israeli government, has opposed the idea of ​​letting Gazans, fleeing the war and crowded on the Egyptian border, enter its territory. In mid-October, he even urged them to "stay on their land", believing that pushing the Palestinians to leave their land is "a way of putting an end to the Palestinian cause".

"In Rafah from now on, any bombing or attack against the refugees will certainly make them flee towards Sinai, estimates Salah Gomaa. Consequently, if Egypt allows this, it will mean that it accepts the liquidation of the Palestinian question while Israeli extremist ministers openly advocate the return of settlers to Gaza and the 'emigration' of Gazans to its Egyptian neighbor.

In addition to a predicted humanitarian catastrophe, Benjamin Netanyahu therefore also risks triggering an open diplomatic crisis with Egypt if he orders the capture of the "Philadelphia corridor".

In mid-January, Israel informed Egypt of its intention to carry out a military operation to take control along the border axis, revealed the Wall Street Journal, citing Israeli and Egyptian sources. On January 16, Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egyptian Information Service (SIS), reacted by warning of a "violation of the peace treaty" which binds the two countries, if the Israeli army were to enter the "corridor of Philadelphia.

"Many Israeli politicians have said that the takeover of the corridor was precisely intended to allow Palestinians, under pressure from the bombing, to migrate to the Sinai, and that is the heart of the problem with the announcement of "an imminent assault on Rafah, explains Salah Gomaa, This is why the president of the SIS issued a firm warning and why Egypt considers the reoccupation of this axis as a red line, which is also added to that which constitutes the question of population displacement."

And to conclude: “Egypt informed Israel through diplomatic channels and informed Israel through the United States that this option will never be authorized by Egypt.”

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