What is the Philadelphi Corridor and why does Benjamin Netanyahu want it to be under Israeli control ?
Recently, negotiations to end the 11-month-long war in Gaza have focused on two buffer zones controlled by the Israeli military.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that, under a truce agreement, there will be no Israeli pullout from the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors.
The Philadelphi Corridor, a buffer zone separating Egypt and Gaza, has been in existence for over forty years, sustained by two bilateral agreements between Cairo and Israel.
Israeli forces established the Netzarim Corridor in recent months to monitor Palestinians in central Gaza.
Palestinian factions have categorically dismissed Israeli demands about the retaining of a military presence in the two corridors, noting that Netanyahu introduced these conditions to obstruct negotiations.
The Philadelphi Corridor is a 14-kilometer-long, 100-meter-wide demilitarized buffer zone that extends along the whole border between Egypt and Gaza.
It extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kerem Shalom crossing, where Gaza, Egypt, and historic Palestine (Israel) converge.
Egypt and Israel established it under a 1979 peace pact, and the Israeli military designated it as the demilitarized zone.
At that time, Israel decided to terminate its 12-year occupation of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula while maintaining its occupation of the Gaza Strip in Palestine.
The Egyptians designate the area as the Salah al-Din corridor, named after the Ayyubid dynasty's founder, who vanquished the Crusaders in Jerusalem in 1187.
The corridor encompasses the Rafah border, the sole passage between Egypt and Gaza.
The 1979 agreement allowed Israel to station a limited number of armed forces, including four infantry battalions, their military installations, field fortifications, and UN monitors, in the corridor.
The deployment of tanks, artillery, or anti-aircraft missiles was prohibited, with the exception of individual surface-to-air missiles.
These Israeli forces declared their objective to prevent the influx of weaponry into Gaza through Egypt.
In 2005, Israel withdrew its physical military presence from Gaza as part of a "disengagement plan," which included the Philadelphi Corridor.
It also removed 9,000 Israeli settlers living in 25 illegal settlements.
The corridor then fell under Egypt's and the Palestinian Authority's (PA) jurisdiction. The latter governed the Gaza portion of the buffer zone.
The 2005 Philadelphi Accord between Egypt and Israel permits Egypt to station 750 border guards to monitor the corridor for counterterrorism and non-military objectives.
This included preventing smuggling and infiltration.
Two years later, Hamas assumed complete control of the Gaza Strip, terminating the PA's co-administration of the buffer zone.
Egyptian forces have intermittently opened the Rafah crossing, a segment of the Philadelphi Corridor, during this period.
Consequently, following 2007, there was an increase in the construction of tunnels between Gaza and Egypt's Sinai, utilized for smuggling goods and arms as well as facilitating family reunions.
Between 2011 and 2015, Egyptian officials dismantled over 2,000 tunnels connecting Sinai and Gaza, claiming security concerns.
The Rafah crossing was the sole entry and exit point into the besieged enclave not under Israeli control, but this situation shifted earlier this year.
In January, three months into Israel's war with Gaza, Netanyahu announced Israel's objective of re-occupying the buffer zone. He stated:
"The Philadelphi Corridor—or, to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point [of Gaza]—must be in our hands."
"It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarization that we seek."
On 7 May, Israel assumed control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border after months of threatening a ground operation in southern Gaza's Rafah.
Days later, it also occupied the Palestinian section of the Philadelphi Corridor, signifying the first Israeli military presence in the buffer zone since 2005.
Following their control of the corridor, Israeli officials announced in late May the discovery of 20 tunnels and 82 tunnel access sites.
The Netzarim Corridor is a 6-kilometer stretch of land that separates northern and southern Gaza.
The Israeli military constructed it during the ongoing war, extending it from the Israeli border with Gaza City to the Mediterranean Sea.
The arbitrary line is designated after Netzarim, an illegal Israeli settlement that was located in the Gaza Strip prior to the Israeli physical withdrawal in 2005.
The term may refer to the reinstatement of unlawful settlements in the Strip, a proposition that far-right Israeli officials have been advocating since October 7.
The Netzarim route consists of military bases used by Israeli forces to monitor and regulate Palestinian movement between northern and southern Gaza. It has also been used by Israeli forces to initiate military operations.
According to analysts, Israeli oversight of the newly established corridor aims to permanently regulate life in Gaza post-war without fully physically occupying the territory.
Netanyahu made it clear that Israel will maintain military control over both the corridors and the Rafah crossing, incorporating these demands into ceasefire negotiations.
Benjamin Netanyahu stated:
“Israel will not, under any circumstances, leave the Philadelphi corridor and the Netzarim axis despite the enormous pressure it is under to do so.”
In August, Israeli negotiators allegedly conveyed to Netanyahu that his demand to retain a presence in the Philadelphi Corridor was the main obstacle to a peace agreement.
The aforementioned conditions were absent from a ceasefire proposal supported by US President Joe Biden in his address on May 31, as well as from a later UN Security Council resolution on June 10.
Both the Security Council resolution and the Biden-sanctioned plan alluded to negotiations aimed at the total withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israel has characterized its new requirements for the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors as "clarifications" to the previously supported Biden proposal.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau, stated that Hamas had previously welcomed the Security Council Resolution and “confirmed its readiness for immediate implementation” in early July.
He stated that Netanyahu replied with “more massacres and killings” and “new conditions,” which included not retreating from the two corridors and the Rafah crossing, inspecting displaced Palestinians returning to northern Gaza, and altering the terms of a previously agreed prisoner exchange, among other changes.
Naim stated:
“The US administration and the international community must put an end to this recklessness and pressure Netanyahu and his fascist government to halt the aggression and sign the ceasefire agreement.”
Three top Egyptian sources indicated that Egypt and Israel have achieved an agreement for an Israeli security presence in the Philadelphi Corridor.
Sources indicate that one option for Israel is to sustain a physical presence. The alternative is to replace the troops with an underground barrier, electronic surveillance, and intermittent patrols.
Officials stated that Egypt would consent to these alternatives if they were approved by Palestinian factions, particularly Hamas.