Netanyahu
has been accused of raising new demands as a pretext for continuing the war. He
has rejected a withdrawal from the corridor in the first phase of a
ceasefire deal. Israel would only agree to a permanent ceasefire after that
with guarantees the corridor would be secured.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel needs to keep forces in the corridor to
prevent it from becoming a lifeline for Hamas to smuggle weapons into Gaza. Egypt
says Israel must pull out, and Hamas is demanding an Israeli withdrawal from
the whole of Gaza.
Here are some facts about the corridor.
The corridor is a strip about 14km (9 miles) long, running
from the Mediterranean Sea at its north-western end to near the Israeli-controlled
Kerem Shalom crossing at its south-eastern end.
Israel
gave it the code name Philadelphi, while the Palestinians and Egypt commonly
call it the Salah al-Din route or axis.
Securing the border has long been a concern for Israel.
Before it withdrew forces and settlers from Gaza in 2005, attacks on Israeli
soldiers patrolling the corridor were common.
As part of the pull-out, Israel signed an agreement with
Egypt which allowed for a 750-strong Egyptian border guard that was meant to
tackle smuggling and militancy on the border. Control of the Gazan side passed
to the Palestinian Authority until Hamas took over Gaza in 2007.
Israel seized control of the Philadelphi corridor in May 2024
as part of its advance into Rafah, in southern Gaza. It says it needs to secure
the corridor because Hamas used tunnels linking Gaza with Egypt's Sinai
Peninsula to smuggle weapons and banned material.
Long
after Israel withdrew from Gaza, a large network of tunnels remained in use. In
May, an Israeli delegate at the International Court of Justice said about 50
such tunnels had been identified in Rafah after the entry of Israeli forces.
Egypt says it destroyed the tunnel network from its side of
the border as it began to push back against an Islamist insurgency in northern
Sinai almost a decade ago, and that it later created a buffer zone and border
fortifications that prevent smuggling.
Since
Hamas took over Gaza, Israel along with Egypt enforced a blockade on the
territory. That included tightly controlling movement through the Rafah
crossing, which is located on the Philadelphi corridor and was the only
crossing on Gaza's borders not directly controlled by Israel.
Despite the restrictions, it remained a lifeline for
Palestinians, allowing those with security approval to leave and re-enter the
territory and serving as a gateway for trade.
After the outbreak of war on October 07 last year the Rafah
crossing became the main entry point for humanitarian aid and an evacuation
route for those in serious need of medical treatment.
Israel's advance in May resulted in the closure of the
crossing, sharply reducing aid deliveries and medical evacuations.
Egypt
says the corridor is guaranteed by its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, that
Israel must withdraw, and that a Palestinian presence at Rafah should be
restored.
The Israeli advance deprived Egypt of its role brokering
access over the border, a position that had given Cairo leverage over Hamas.
Security
at the border is highly sensitive for Egypt because of its history of conflict
with Israel, fears that Israel's military offensive could create a breach of
the border and push large numbers of Palestinians into Sinai, and the risk of
militancy.
While Egypt has developed extensive contacts with Hamas, the
Palestinian Islamist movement is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which
was banned in Egypt after then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the 2013
overthrow of its democratically elected president, Mohamed Mursi.
Early in the current conflict, Sisi raised the prospect of
Sinai becoming a base for attacks against Israel if Palestinians were forced
across the border en masse.
Israel's
desire to keep troops deployed in the Philadelphi corridor and the Netzarim
corridor, which cuts across the Gaza Strip south of Gaza City, have recently
emerged as sticking points in ceasefire talks.
Over months of negotiations Hamas's core demands have been a
guarantee of a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from
Gaza. The group wants Palestinians, many of whom were displaced from northern
to southern Gaza, to be able to move through Netzarim from the first phase of
any ceasefire deal.
Egypt is a mediator in ceasefire talks together with the
United States and Qatar, and has reacted angrily to Israeli suggestions that
its border with Gaza is not secure.
Negotiators have discussed surveillance systems
that could allow Israel to pull back its troops if a ceasefire was agreed.
There has also been discussion of deploying international monitors at the
border.
Netanyahu has been accused of raising new demands as a
pretext for continuing the war. He has rejected a withdrawal from the
corridor in the first phase of a ceasefire deal. Israel would only agree to a
permanent ceasefire after that with guarantees the corridor would be secured.
