Egyptian President Sisi rejects Netanyahu's request

According to reports in the Israeli press, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office attempted to arrange a phone call between Egyptian President Sisi and Netanyahu through the country's National Security Council in recent days, but the request was turned down by Sisi.

Israel's private Channel 13 also noted that Sisi's rejection of the phone call request was "related to tensions over who will control the Egypt-Gaza border after Israel's attacks on Gaza end."

It is known that Israel is seeking to control Egypt's border with Gaza.

The Israeli press also states that lower-level contacts are being maintained between Cairo and Tel Aviv.

Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt's State Information Service, stated in a written statement yesterday that any move by Israel to occupy the Philadelphia Corridor (Salah al-Din Corridor), the border line between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, would seriously threaten Egyptian-Israeli relations.

Netanyahu first announced on December 10, 2023, that they would occupy the Philadelphia Corridor. Repeating the same statements several times in different declarations within the same month, Netanyahu said on December 30, "Israel must take control of the Philadelphia Corridor. It must be in our hands and under our control; any other arrangement will not be accepted by Israel."

Netanyahu also claimed in a statement regarding the Philadelphia Corridor on December 13 that they could not eliminate Hamas without securing control of the region.

REGARDING THE PHILADELPHIA CORRIDOR AGREEMENT

The corridor, also known as the "Salah al-Din Corridor," located on the border between Gaza and Egypt, is in the buffer zone under the "Camp David" agreement signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979. The corridor is 14.5 kilometers long, a few hundred meters wide, and extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kerem Shalom Border Crossing.

According to the "Camp David" agreement, the Philadelphia Corridor is located within Palestinian territory but was left under the control of a specific number of Israeli forces (180 armored vehicles and 4,000 soldiers). On the other side of the border, lightly armed Egyptian police were permitted.

The Philadelphia Corridor remained under the control of Israeli forces until Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, at which point it was handed over to the Palestinian Authority in the presence of European Union observers. In September 2005, an agreement was made between Israel and Egypt regarding the corridor as an addition to the security clause of the 1979 Peace Treaty.

The agreement included the deployment of 750 Egyptian border guard soldiers responsible for tasks such as detecting terrorism, smuggling, and tunnels on the Gaza border, and the handover of the Philadelphia Corridor, from which Israeli forces had withdrawn, to the Palestinian Authority.

Following Hamas's victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and its subsequent takeover of control in Gaza, the Philadelphia Corridor also came under the control of the Hamas administration. As a result of Israel's blockade, numerous tunnels opening into Egypt were built along this corridor in Gaza.