what is the “Philadelphia Corridor”, located on the border between Gaza and Egypt?

This road has become strategic again since the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel on October 7 and the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.

A new stage of the offensive on Rafah. The Israeli army announced on Wednesday May 30 that it had taken control of “Philadelphia corridor”, this buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. She also claimed to have discovered around twenty tunnels in the border sector. This area wasa few hours ago the only border that was out of control Israelis.

The blockade of the Gaza Strip is now total for the IDF. The army thus willing his men on the essentials ofis 14 kilometers of the “corridor”. Only the northern part, At the seaside, near the Al Mawasi displaced persons camp, is not physically busy. However, she is under surveillance and within firing range.

Concretely, this corridor, also known as the “Saladin corridor”, is the road which borders the Gaza border with Egypt. It is a strip of land 14 kilometers long and 100 meters wide. With the ongoing war in the Palestinian enclave between Israel and Hamas, this road had once again become a strategic issue for the Jewish state.

This corridor was established as a buffer zone after the Camp David agreements, recalls the Lebanese daily The Orient-The day. These agreements signed by Egypt and Israel in September 1978, followed by a peace treaty the following year, put an end to thirty years of conflict between the two countries. Held by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967, the Sinai region was returned to Egypt but Israel continues to control the corridor. The Jewish state present in Gaza could thus protect itself from an attack and avoid the circulation of weapons between the Palestinian enclave and Egypt. This name “Philadelphia” would also be linked to a code name used by the Israeli army for the border area. When the Hebrew State decided to leave Gaza in 2005, the corridor came under Egyptian control, recalls The cross. By regaining control of the border with Gaza, Cairo is committed to fighting against arms trafficking.

With the war against Hamas, control of this route once again became essential for the Jewish state. “The Philadelphia Corridor must be in our hands and under our control, and any arrangement other than that will not be accepted by Israel”, Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a press conference on December 30. Enough to rekindle tensions between the two countries. “Any Israeli move aimed at occupying the Philadelphia axis in the Gaza Strip will pose a grave and serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations”declared the head of the Egyptian General Information Organization, Diaa Rashwan, at the end of January.

The pressure is intensifying with the order given to the Israeli army to prepare an offensive on Rafah, therefore close to the corridor. At the end of January, Diaa Rashwan explained that the borders of her country “will not be taken hostage by a group of extremist Israeli leaders”.

Saccording to the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, “The Philadelphia corridor served as a lifeline for Hamas as it smuggled weapons into the Gaza Strip. This success is the result of an operation carried out by the 162nd division which has been fighting in the Rafah region in recent weeks.” An information immediately denied by an Egyptian official, who claimed that these allegations were used to justify the continuation of the operation in Gaza.