Egypt not cooperating with Israel on Philadelphia Corridor: Report

By Ibrahim al-Khazen

ISTANBUL (AA) - Egypt is not cooperating with Israel regarding the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza, Egyptian media reported Monday.

The Egyptian news outlet Al-Qahera News quoted an Egyptian official who said such reports were “completely false.”

Last week, Israeli reports claimed that Israel had asked Egypt for more security measures to be enforced and more surveillance equipment to be installed along the Philadelphia Corridor in order to notify Israel if weapons were being smuggled in and to detect the use of tunnels by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

The Philadelphia Corridor is a 14-kilometer (8.69-mile) long corridor which is guaranteed by the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979.

It has been patrolled by Egyptian security forces after Israeli forces pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said several times that the corridor must be under Israeli control, a move that if carried out would separate Gaza from Egypt.

There has been no official comments from Egypt or Israel on the reports.

Israel has launched air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

At least 23,084 Palestinians have since been killed and 58,926 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicines.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar