After several months of warnings and Egyptian rejection of any Israeli military operation in the city of Rafah or the axis of Philadelphia, the Israeli occupation army announced on Tuesday morning its control over the Rafah crossing, which connects Egypt with the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said in a statement that "the forces of the 401st Brigade achieved operational control over the Rafah crossing from the Gaza side, and separated the crossing from the Salah al-Din axis".
Thus, the occupation forces have penetrated into the Salah al-Din "Philadelphia" axis - for the first time since their withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in mid-August 2005-a 14-kilometer border strip separating the Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, and the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel stipulates that it should be a "buffer zone" along the border between the two parties.
"Self-control"
In the first Egyptian reaction, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned the Israeli military operations in Rafah and the resulting Israeli control over the Palestinian side of the crossing.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry called on Israel to exercise "maximum restraint and move away from the policy of brinkmanship with a far-reaching impact," which would threaten the fate of painstaking efforts to reach a sustainable truce inside the Gaza Strip.
This dangerous escalation threatens the lives of more than a million Palestinians who depend on this crossing as the main lifeline of the Gaza Strip, and a safe port for the exit of the wounded and sick to receive treatment, and the entry of humanitarian and relief assistance to the Palestinian brothers in Gaza.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also called on all influential international parties to intervene and exert the necessary pressure to defuse the current crisis and provide an opportunity for diplomatic efforts to achieve their desired results.
In turn, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that the international community was unable to prevent Israel from storming Rafah.
All scenarios
Hours later, Egyptian media reported that Cairo demanded that Tel Aviv stop its military movements at the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side "immediately".
The Cairo news channel (which is close to Egyptian intelligence) quoted an unnamed source, but described him as "high-level", that an Egyptian security delegation warned its counterparts in Israel of the consequences of storming the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side, and asked to stop this move immediately.
The source added that Egypt has informed Israel of the seriousness of the escalation, and that it is ready to deal with all scenarios.
"There are intensive Egyptian efforts with various parties to contain the situation in the Gaza Strip, and there is a consensus among all parties to return to the negotiating track,"the source added.
Call for a truce
On Tuesday evening, Egyptian Defense Minister Mohammed Zaki called for the need to reach a truce between the Islamic resistance movement (Hamas) and Israel, and to stop the Israeli war on Gaza.
This came during a meeting between Zaki-the commander-in - chief of the Egyptian army-in Cairo with the commander of the US Central Command "CENTCOM" Michael Corella, according to a statement by Egyptian army spokesman Gharib Abdel Hafez.
A statement by the Egyptian military spokesman said that Zaki stressed the importance of coordinating efforts between all the active forces in the international community to reach a truce and a ceasefire in Gaza, and to intensify assistance through the Rafah land crossing to alleviate the very difficult humanitarian crisis faced by the Palestinian brothers in the Gaza Strip.
The statement quoted Corella praising" the pivotal role played by Egypt in achieving security, stability and balance in the region, especially in Gaza, " stressing his country's keenness to support strategic partnership relations and continuous coordination between the Egyptian and American armed forces.
Official complaint
In a related context, the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" said that Egypt has filed a complaint to Israel about the publication by its army of videos showing the Israeli flag flying at the Rafah crossing.
The newspaper added that Egypt saw these symbolic and public steps as detrimental to its efforts to downplay the importance of operations near its territory.
According to the newspaper, an understanding has been reached between Israel, Egypt and the United States that an American security company will take over the management of the Rafah crossing, in exchange for Israel committing to Washington and Cairo to restrict its operation in Rafah so that its goal is to deprive Hamas of control of the crossing.
Previous warnings
Last January, the head of the official Egyptian Information Authority, Dia Rashwan, said that any Israeli move towards occupying the Salah al-Din axis (Philadelphia axis) in the Gaza Strip would lead to a serious and serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations, and Israel's persistent marketing of these lies in an attempt to create legitimacy for its pursuit of occupying the Philadelphia corridor or the Salah al-Din corridor.
The head of the Egyptian Information Service stressed that his country's borders will not be mortgaged in the hands of a group of extremist Israeli leaders who seek to drag the region into a state of conflict and instability, as he put it.
"This Egyptian Red Line (not to touch the Philadelphia corridor) joins the previous one, which Egypt has repeatedly announced, which is the categorical rejection of the forced or voluntary displacement of our Palestinian brothers to Sinai, which we will not allow Israel to cross,"he said.
On the tenth of last January, the Israeli Channel 12 reported (privately) that Cairo rejected a request from Tel Aviv that Israel take over the security of the Philadelphia axis border area between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
In September 2005, the "Philadelphia agreement" was signed between Israel and Egypt, which Israel considers a security annex to the 1979 peace treaty, and says that it is governed by its general principles and provisions, and under this agreement, Israel withdrew from the "Philadelphia" axis and handed it over with the Rafah crossing to the Palestinian Authority.
At the end of 2013, the Egyptian authorities tightened their grip on the border area, built a steel wall, which they said was aimed at preventing the infiltration of "militants" and"extremists" into their territory, and later dug a cross channel from the Sea coast north to the Rafah crossing south, to establish a border buffer zone stretching for about 5 kilometers in order to eliminate the tunnels of the Philadelphia axis.
.jpeg)
