"What will Egypt say?"”.. This is how the Israeli newspaper “Yisrael Hayom” began its report on a major dilemma facing the Israeli army in the Palestinian city of Rafah adjacent to the Egyptian border.

The Hebrew newspaper added that during the fighting in Gaza so far, the Israeli army has refrained from conducting a large-scale ground military operation in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and its surroundings on the Egyptian border, and that the next issue that is expected to reach the door of the war cabinet is military activity in that area.

"Israel today" has learned that the Israeli government is planning a ground invasion in the city of Rafah and the Philadelphia area, and that when it has to do so it will promote a complete cleansing of the city bordering Egypt, as has happened in other parts of the Gaza Strip.

“So far, the Israeli army has been content with air strikes along the Salah al-Din axis (Philadelphia) adjacent to the Egyptian border, and although it is known that Hamas' military and civilian infrastructure is still located there, there are justified suspicions that smuggling tunnels still exist under the houses of the city, and therefore there is a need for a ground invasion of that area,” it continued.

The dilemma for the Israeli army is that half of these tunnels are in the Gaza Strip and half are under Egyptian sovereignty, and it is possible that they are still active, and as long as the Israeli army has not completely cleared the city, there is no certainty that the flow of weapons will stop.

“Another disputed area is the Philadelphia axis near Rafah, where this axis has enormous strategic importance, and until Israel withdrew from it in 2005, it was pivotal and crucial in preventing the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, and although there is widespread agreement that there would be a great benefit in capturing it, Israel has avoided it so far,” it added.

However, it should be noted that since the outbreak of the war, the IDF has already conducted operations several times in the southern city.

“In this context, it is important to note that Egypt and other regional and international actors are supposed to have an important role in managing the sector the day after the war,” the newspaper continued.

Israeli media had revealed Tel Aviv's request to Cairo to allow it to deploy Israeli troops at the Rafah crossing, in order to thwart any attempt “to smuggle Israeli prisoners or escape Hamas leaders inside the Sinai"”

The Israeli newspaper Maariv said that Israel is currently studying the management of the” Philadelphia axis " – the Salah al – Din axis-adjacent to the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, adding that addressing the Philadelphia axis is a particularly complex issue.

According to estimates, it seems that the war will enter a new phase after the end of the current intensive operation in Khan Younis, Shejaiya neighborhood, Jabalia camp, and possibly also in the refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip.