Egypt not cooperating with Israel on Philadelphia Corridor: Report

ISTANBUL (AA) – Egypt is refusing to cooperate with Israel regarding greater surveillance of the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza, an Egyptian news outlet has reported.

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 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 killed at least 23,084 Palestinians and injured 58,926 in air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

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.