Israel and Egypt are negotiating the future of a corridor between Egypt and Gaza that Israel says has been used by Hamas to smuggle weapons and people through underground tunnels.
Israel has requested that sensors be installed along the Philadelphi Corridor to alert Israel if Hamas attempts to rebuild a tunnel and smuggling network.
Israel also requested direct notifications if the sensors are triggered, and the right to send surveillance drones into the area in case of such a trigger.
In response, Egypt said that it would consider adding the sensors, but that a direct notification or approval of drones would be a violation of Egyptian sovereignty.
The negotiations over the past two weeks have stalled on this issue.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a news conference on 30 December that the Philadelphi Corridor must be ‘in our hands’, and that control of the border between Gaza and Egypt is key to ensuring the demilitarisation of Gaza.
‘It must be closed’, he said. ‘It’s clear that any other arrangement won’t guarantee the disarmament that we want.’
The Corridor is a roughly 14-kilometre-long buffer running the length of the Gaza frontier with Egypt.
The Corridor was established by the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, and was controlled by Israel to prevent the movement of weapons and goods between Egypt and Gaza. Israel relinquished control to Egypt and Palestinian authorities after pulling out of Gaza in 2005.
Since Hamas took over Gaza in 2007, Israel alleges the Corridor has become the main avenue for smuggling weapons and illicit goods into Gaza.
‘It’s clear that the Egyptians failed to stop the flow of munitions and weapons into Gaza in the past 18 years; they can’t deny it’, said Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli general.
[Image: Hamzé Attar, Twitter X]