Israeli Media Reports: Egypt Rejects Israel's Request to Secure Philadelphi Corridor
Israeli media outlets reported on Tuesday that Egypt has denied a request to secure the "Philadelphi Corridor," a border area between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General Ghassan Alian, visited Cairo on Tuesday at the head of a security delegation.
The newspaper clarified that the visit aimed to discuss the security arrangements in the Philadelphi Corridor region and to explore a possible new prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, without providing further details.
The Philadelphi Corridor, also known as the "Salah al-Din Axis," is part of a buffer zone established under the 1979 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. The corridor, only a few hundred meters wide, extends 14.5 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
On Monday, an Egyptian official denied to the privately-owned "Cairo News Channel," which is close to the Egyptian authorities, the claims of media reports about Egyptian-Israeli cooperation concerning the Philadelphi Corridor, asserting that "such news is completely untrue."
These reports, according to the channel, suggested that "Israel had asked Egypt to install sensors along the Philadelphi Corridor to alert them in the event of Hamas attempting to rebuild tunnels and the smuggling network, in addition to allowing Israeli reconnaissance drones to fly to the border."
In late December of last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed Tel Aviv's desire for a third time to take control of the Philadelphi Corridor following the end of the war on Gaza.
For the past 96 days, the Israeli military has been launching an offensive on Gaza, which has resulted in more than 23,000 deaths and 59,000 injuries as of Tuesday, with the majority being children and women, according to Gaza authorities and the United Nations. This aggression has caused massive destruction to the infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.
