Wall Street Journal: Israel informs Egypt that the Israeli army intends to control the Philadelphia Axis in a new strategy to defeat Hamas
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel informed Egypt of its intention to launch a military operation to control the Palestinian region from the Palestinian-Egyptian border, known as the “Philadelphia Axis”.
The Wall Street Journal quoted official Israeli and Egyptian sources as saying that as part of the operation, Palestinian elements will be removed from the Rafah crossing, which is located on the axis in the far south of the Gaza Strip, and includes the Rafah crossing.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, indicated that Israel informed Egypt that Israeli army forces would be stationed along the border.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is pushing to control the border area that the army calls the “Philadelphia Corridor,” which is 13 kilometers long and located along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, under the pretext of preventing Hamas movement from smuggling weapons to the sector.
The Israeli government states that this step is a strategy to defeat Hamas and prevent a recurrence of its attack, as happened on October 7th.
The Wall Street Journal said that the move was a strategic strike that would allow Israel to penetrate tunnels in the region, limit the ability to smuggle weapons, and prevent members of the movement from escaping the Strip.
As part of this risky mission, all Palestinian officials would be removed from the crossing on the axis, and Israeli forces would be placed on the border, from the southeastern corner of Gaza on the borders with Israel and Egypt towards the Mediterranean Sea.
Earlier on Saturday, an official Egyptian source denied media reports about the existence of Egyptian-Israeli cooperation regarding the Philadelphia border axis.
The source confirmed that such news is completely false.
According to Egyptian sources, Cairo rejected an Israeli proposal to strengthen Israeli supervision of the buffer zone on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
The sources explained that Egypt gives priority to mediation efforts in a ceasefire before working on post-war arrangements.
