Egypt warns it is ‘ready to respond’ after Israel’s seizure of Philadelphi corridor
E gypt has warned it will not hesitate to respond militarily after Israeli forces took control of a buffer zone along its border with the Gaza Strip.
Daniel Hagari, Israel’s chief military spokesperson, said Israeli forces had gained “operational” control over the “Philadelphi Corridor” , using the Israeli military’s code name for the 14 km-long (nine-mile) corridor along the Gaza Strip’s only border with Egypt.
“The Philadelphi Corridor served as an oxygen line for Hamas , which it regularly used to smuggle weapons into the area of the Gaza Strip,” Mr Hagari said. Hamas is the armed Palestinian group that governs the blockaded territory.
Mr Hagari did not spell out what “operational” control referred to but an Israeli military official earlier said there were Israeli “boots on the ground” along parts of the corridor.
The border with Egypt along the southern edge was the Gaza Strip’s only land border that Israel had not controlled directly.
Relations between Israel and its key Arab ally Egypt are now fraying, according to the Wall Street Journal, with Egypt telling Israel it will not hesitate to respond militarily if it feels its security has been threatened.
Israel has claimed there are at least 20 tunnels in the Philadelphi corridor.
A high-level Egyptian source said in response: “Israel is using these allegations to justify continuing the operation on the Palestinian city of Rafah and prolonging the war for political purposes,” according to state-linked Al-Qahera News.
Egypt has denied the existence of the tunnel network linking Egypt’s Sinai and the Hamas-controlled strip.
Just days ago, Egyptian forces posted at the Gaza border opened fire on Israeli forces operating in Rafah in what is believed to have been a revenge attack for the humanitarian crisis unravelling in Gaza. In the resulting exchange of fire, an Egyptian soldier was killed.
The tensions pose a risk to Israel’s efforts to free its 125 remaining hostages held by Hamas, with Egypt a key mediator between Israel and Hamas along with Qatar and the US.
Both Israel and Egypt remain ideologically united on the goal of eliminating Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood but, amid global allegations that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza with 36,000 Palestinians reportedly killed since October 7, it is becoming harder for Egypt to side with its neighbouring country.
Israel has continued to move deeper into Rafah, in spite of an order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to end attacks on the area where half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people had previously taken refuge. The US claimed the operation had not crossed its ‘red lines’.
Mr Hagari said Hamas positioned rocket launchers in the Philadelphi Route to dissuade Israel from striking close to the Egyptian border as the conflict in the southernmost part of the strip continued.
Rafah offensive
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel sent tanks on raids into Rafah. They had moved into the heart of Rafah for the first time on Tuesday despite an order from the top United Nations court to immediately halt the assault on the city.
The ICJ, the UN World Court, said Israel had not explained how it would keep evacuees from Rafah safe and provide food, water and medicine. Its ruling also called on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release hostages taken from Israel on Oct. 7.
Rafah residents said Israeli tanks had pushed into Tel al-Sultan in the west and Yibna, and near Shaboura in the centre, before retreating towards a buffer zone on the border with Egypt, rather than staying put as they have in other offensives.
“We received distress calls from residents in Tel al-Sultan where drones targeted displaced citizens as they moved from areas where they were staying toward the safe areas,” said Haitham al Hams, the deputy director of ambulance and emergency services in Rafah.
Palestinian health officials said 19 civilians had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and shelling across Gaza. Israel accuses Hamas militants of hiding among civilians, something Gaza’s ruling Islamist group denies.
Majed Abu Raman, the health minister, urged Washington to pressure Israel to open the Rafah crossing to aid, saying there was no indication that Israeli authorities would do so soon and that patients in besieged Gaza were dying for lack of treatment.
Fighting in Gaza will continue throughout 2024 at least, said Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s national security adviser, signalling Israel was not ready to end the war as Hamas has demanded as part of a deal to exchange its hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
“The fighting in Rafah is not a pointless war,” Mr Hanegbi said, reiterating that Israel aimed to end Hamas rule in Gaza and stop it and its allies attacking Israel.
Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said Israel needed to craft a post-war plan for Gaza or risk lawlessness, chaos and a Hamas comeback in the enclave.
The US, Israel’s closest ally, reiterated its opposition to a major ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday while saying it did not believe such an operation was under way.
More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s Gaza offensive, the enclave’s health ministry said.
Israel launched its war after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Hostage release talks
There was no word on Wednesday on developments in the ceasefire and hostage release talks. Hamas has said talks are pointless unless Israel ends its offensive on Rafah.
The armed wing of Hamas, and that of allies Islamic Jihad, said they confronted invading forces in Rafah with anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs. They said they blew up explosive devices that had been planted, resulting in numerous successful hits.
The Israeli military said three Israeli soldiers were killed and three badly wounded. Public broadcaster Kan radio said an explosive device had been set off in a Rafah building.
Palestinian health officials said several people were wounded by Israeli fire. They said stores of aid were set ablaze in eastern Rafah, where residents said Israeli bombardment had destroyed many homes in an area Israel has ordered to be evacuated.
Around a million Palestinians who had taken shelter in Rafah at the southern end of the Gaza Strip have now fled after Israeli orders to evacuate, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees reported on Tuesday.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had evacuated its medical teams from its field hospital in the Al-Mawasi area, a designated civilian evacuation zone, because of continued bombardments.
PRCS said two of its staff were killed when an ambulance was struck while on a mission to rescue people in Rafah. In another Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City, medics said five other Palestinians were killed.
In the nearby city of Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike killed three people overnight, including Salama Baraka, a former senior Hamas police officer, medics and Hamas media said. Another killed four people, including two children, medics reported.
In northern Gaza, Israeli forces shelled Gaza City neighbourhoods and moved deeper into Jabalia, where residents said large residential districts were destroyed.
Malnutrition has become widespread in Gaza as aid deliveries have slowed to a trickle. The UN, which has warned of famine, said on Wednesday the amount of humanitarian aid entering the enclave has dropped by two-thirds since Israel began its assault on the Rafah region this month,
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An explosive situation between Israel and Egypt.
Egypt is more concerned about keeping their population under control. That includes it's younger less trained soldiers that might be sympathetic to the Palestinians.
They can talk tough with Israel; but when push comes to shove it is their own population they are cracking down on.
https://apnews.com/article/egypt-gaza-rally-arrest-palestinians-israel-protest-03aeb63124d3118922ea7055a91777a6#:~:text=CAIRO%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20Egyptian%20authorities,a%20human%20rights%20lawyer%20said.
Unless Israel does something truly genocidal like try to force the Gazans into Egypt; Egypt won't do anything. While the US might supply Egypt arms- it is no where near the caliber of Israel militarily speaking. No matter what the numbers say. The Egyptian government still hasn't recovered from multiple loses to Israel in previous wars. It has no taste to participate in another.
There is one figure that makes both Egypt and Israel leary of the current war in Gaza,
You can bet that Sisi does not want thousands of Palestinians forced into the Sinia which would probably cause Egypt to react and act on a war footing. The Palestinians are as dangerous to Egypt as they are to Israel.
egypt knows that if their tourist trade disappears, their gov't does too...
This provides a significant opportunity to flood or cave-in cross border tunnels.
What is a few thousand, or even tens of thousands, Palestinian dead at this point?
It isn't like there won't be another incursion into Gaza in the next ten years or so once Iran has a chance to restock/train whatever new faction that grows from today's Gazan youth. Israel's actions have made sure of it.
As for Hamas. They might not survive; but they have already won. Their stupidity will be carried on.
bibi just helped hamas recruit half a million new terrorists...
Neither side gives a fuck.
Israel could care less about international law and their responsibilities to the Palestinian civilians now under their military control.
Hamas never gave a shit about the Palestinians under their control. At this point they have nothing to lose. Chances are whatever hostages remain are dead buried under rubble from Israeli bombings; starvation; or just shot by Hamas in retaliation for Israel pushing its attack on Gaza. Even if Hamas loses at this point they win. The seeds for a future Hamas (even if it is not called that) have been implanted on Gazan youth. What Israel has done here will not be forgiven for forgotten.
They already won - Almost the whole rest of the world supports them. Look at the world wide protests supporting the terrorists, most of the world wanting to reward their terorism with a State.
What's so new about that? The UNRWA teachers have been teaching Jew-hatred and jihad to the Palestinians and Gazans for years.
LMAO. The UN still thinks they are some kind of authority.
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The article is about Egypt and Israel, if you are going to comment stick with the article, or don't waste the time of others that are.
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Israel is prolonging the war? I guess they're just supposed to go home, abandon hostages, and leave the terrorist Hamas organization functioning and in control of Gaza?
The problem for Israel is that they cannot destroy Hamas or any other terrorist organization, it's an ideology, that you cannot kill. So, do they destroy what is left of Gaza and kill everyone there or do they try to come to some type of cease fire? Israel thought that they eliminated Hamas in northern Gaza only to find that Hamas had moved back in and the fighting is raging there now. After Gaza, what, the West Bank? Then it's Hezbollah and they are much larger and more powerful than Hamas with more advanced weapons and that front is heating up now, with the attack being more frequent and deadly
IMO, the civilian deaths in Gaza only adds more terrorists to their camp. and sadly as far as the hostages go there may not be any left alive.
Yes, ideologies are probably impossible to kill. I mean we pretty much burned Germany to the ground, and yet Nazis still somehow exist. But you can still take military steps to secure your border, close off tunnels, destroy weapons, and so on. Basically eliminate that ideology's power to make war. You can do that.
And there's still the matter of hostages.
Israel should be allowed - even expected - to deal with those issues. But once they do that, they have work of their own to do. They should be recognizing a Palestinian state. They should do what is possible to undo the damage of their settlements in the West Bank. In these things, they are going to have to take the first steps.
They have to face this reality: most of the world sees them as the bully.
It might not be fair, but the status quo clearly isn't working.
Yes, you can do that and Israel has done it but on Oct 7 proved that nothing they did stopped Hamas.
Yes, there is that and sadly I'm afraid there will be few if any alive when this is over.
They should deal with many issues, first of all, the illegal settlements in the West Bank. I agree they will have to take the first steps and none of the steps will be easy.
We've seen war after war there since 1948, and without some dramatic reversal it will continue on for the next 100 years.
No questioning that.
Neighborhood Bully
His enemies say he's on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He's the neighborhood bully
He's criticized and condemned for being alive
Not supposed to fight back, and have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully
He's wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, people hounded and torn
He's always on trial for just being born
He's the neighborhood bully
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him, he was supposed to feel bad
He's the neighborhood bully
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him
'There's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him given out to every maniac
He's the neighborhood bully
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He's the neighborhood bully
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He's the neighborhood bully
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one's command
He's the neighborhood bully
No contract that he signed was worth that what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He's the neighborhood bully
"Nothing", they say, "he just likes to cause war"
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits for feed
Neighborhood bully
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully
their reluctance to deal with those internal religious radicals that have put them in that light makes them and america complicit...
I highly doubt that any are left alive.
Not a problem for Hamas, they’ll negotiate over the bodies return.
I wonder if they'll want the same ratio of dead israelis to dead palestinians exchanged as they did the live ones...
No way, that’s never the math. They will want to trade 15 live Gazans for 1 dead Israeli.
Yesterday the IDF pulled out of Jabalia after 20 days of fighting reporting over 100 Hamas fighters killed, two IDF killed, 1,000 homes destroyed and seven dead hostages found.
deport bibi and his radical religious cult of ultra nationalist supporters from israel to gaza, and then stand back and watch as the religious terrorists in the middle east eradicate themselves. problem solved.
joe's presser just put both hamas and israel on the spot...