Israel is demanding to retain control of an area of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt that it captured in early May in order to prevent the ” arms smuggling ” to the Palestinian Hamas from Egypt,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, July 11.
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This requirement to maintain the “ Philadelphia Corridor and the Point of Rafah crossing » is part of the « four principles » posed by Israel as part of negotiations for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and the release of hostages. This was explained by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while the radical Palestinian movement Hamas is demanding the evacuation of this area by the Israeli army.
The Philadelphia Corridor is a thin buffer zone traced by the Israeli army during its second occupation of the Gaza Strip (1967-2005), now at least a hundred meters wide, more in places, and running along the 14 kilometers of the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
A vital border for delivering humanitarian aid
Crucial for the transit of humanitarian aid, the Rafah crossing point is the only route between the Gaza Strip and a territory other thanIsraelIt has been closed since Israeli troops launched a major ground offensive in early May against the city, where the majority of the Gaza Strip’s population had taken refuge.
In a brief televised address, Benjamin Netanyahu recalled the other conditions set by his government in these indirect negotiations in which Qatar, Egypt and the United States are serving as mediators.
Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to give in
Any possible agreement, he said, ” must allow Israel to resume fighting [à l’issue d’une éventuelle trêve] until the aims of the war are achieved “. “IIsrael will not allow return of armed terrorists or weapons to northern Gaza Strip “, the scene of violent fighting between the Israeli army on one side and Palestinian armed groups including the military wing of Hamas on the other, he added, also demanding that in the first phase of the project under discussion ” a maximum number of hostages be released “.
The war broke out on October 7 after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil, killing 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 116 are still being held hostage in Gaza, 42 of whom have been declared dead by the army. In response, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas.
Its military offensive that has devastated the Gaza Strip has so far killed 38,345 people, mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government.
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