Israel to control Gaza-Egypt border after withdrawal in 2005

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza will continue for many more months.

Netanyahu in a press conference said ,“The Philadelphi Corridor – or to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point [of Gaza] – must be in our hands. It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek.”

Despite persistent international cease-fire calls after mounting civilian deaths, hunger and mass displacement in the besieged enclave, Netanyahu vowed to retake control of the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.

Israel in doing so will reverse 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, placing the enclave under exclusive Israeli control after years of being run by Palestinians.

The Philadelphi Corridor, also known as the Philadelphi Route, is the 14km (8.7-mile) long strip of land that represents the entirety of the border area between Gaza and Egypt.

The proposed Israeli control over the management of the border strip to Israel would mean that Israel would control the Rafah crossing.As it is the only route out of Israeli control and could increase pressure on the Palestinians.

Israel has imposed a land, air, and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007. The blockade has trapped over two million people inside the Gaza Strip, isolating and depriving them of their rights made Gaza the world’s largest “open-air prison”.

The Israeli military campaign has displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population of the besieged Gaza territory.Since October 7 , Israel has killed at least 21,672 people, most of them women and children, with thousands of others buried under the rubble.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that the conflict in Gaza could become a regional crisis. Iran’s foreign minister said that the scale of civilian damage caused by Israeli strikes on Hamas would spread the conflict into the rest of the region.