Israel is experiencing an internal dispute over the occupation of the Philadelphia border axis between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, a desire supported by the Israeli extreme right and opposed by the army, while Cairo rejects it in a way that is not firm enough, according to experts and analysts.

Talk about occupying the Philadelphia Axis - which is known in Palestinians as the Saladin Axis - came back again after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the necessity of keeping the axis under Israel’s control, claiming that it is an arms smuggling corridor that must be closed.

But Cairo denied these allegations through the head of the State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, who said that Netanyahu’s speech was a prelude to reoccupying the axis, a clear violation of the Camp David Agreement signed between the two sides, and reflects the Israelis’ desire to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Rashwan said that the occupation of the axis may expose relations between the two sides to a serious and serious threat, stressing that Egypt will not mortgage its borders to a group of extremist Israeli leaders who want to drag the region towards instability.

According to Hebrew media, Cairo has recently rejected Israel’s military operation in the region, and has also rejected arrangements proposed by Tel Aviv to monitor the axis technologically.

The motive is not military

Therefore, Netanyahu’s talk about occupying the axis is nothing but a reflection of his desire to completely occupy the Gaza Strip. Because he considers it an integral part of the Balfour Declaration, and therefore he tries to restore it whenever he finds a suitable circumstance, says military expert Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi.

During his participation in the program “Gaza... What Next?”, Al-Duwairi said that controlling the axis is not useful from a military standpoint, because Egypt dealt with the tunnel crisis and flooded it with water up to 30 meters, and confirmed this matter publicly.

Accordingly, talk about reoccupying this axis does not represent a military need, but rather represents a need for the extreme right, which dreams of returning to Gaza again, according to political analyst Muhannad Mustafa.

While the extremists are trying to push towards a complete occupation of the axis, the military establishment wants to launch a quick operation and then withdraw after reaching new understandings with Egypt that allow Israel to monitor the region technologically, in Mustafa’s opinion.

Mustafa attributes the absence of consensus regarding occupying the axis - which is actually on the table - to the high political and military cost that Israel will pay, “because the process is very similar to the experience of southern Lebanon, which cost it a lot and did not achieve security.”

Breach of the Camp David Accords

Despite the increasing possibility of Israel moving forward with its plans, it will clash with the Camp David Accords, of which the axis is part according to the 2005 annex, as journalist Muhammad Al-Satohi confirms.

Accordingly, Israel's occupation of the axis - in Al-Satohi's opinion - represents a complete Israeli violation of its agreement with Egypt, which will face great danger if it loses security control over this border strip.

From this standpoint, Al-Satohi believes that Egypt will not allow Israel to take unilateral steps in this region, “which explains the statements made by Rashwan, which somewhat broke the calm language that Cairo had adopted from the beginning of the crisis,” he said.

The statements of the head of the Egyptian State Information Service reflect Cairo’s feeling that Israel has a serious intention to occupy the axis in preparation for its larger goal of displacing the residents of Gaza towards Sinai, as Al-Satohi says.

Al-Duwairi agrees with the idea and quality of the Israeli intention to occupy the axis unless control is achieved through a new agreement with Egypt, but he confirms that invading the region requires crushing more than a million displaced people who are currently in the region.

Although Israel entered this region in the past and demolished tents on those in it, the situation is different this time, not only because of the presence of more than a million people, but also because of the strong resistance it will face on the ground.

Facilitating displacement

Aside from the security goals that Netanyahu talks about, the real goal of the attempt to occupy the axis is to facilitate the process of voluntarily or forcibly displacing the population, says Mustafa, who confirmed that Netanyahu had previously backed off from this step due to Egyptian-American rejection, but he returned to it again due to right-wing pressure on him. .

The same opinion was shared by Al-Satohi, who said that Egypt must use a more assertive language than its current language, and not be satisfied with private channels with Tel Aviv and Washington, because it is already facing the possibility of pushing more than a million people into its territory.

Al-Satohi believes that Israel was slow in displacing the population due to the Egyptian and American positions, but it did not back down from it and is working to implement it in every way. He added, “Israel may bomb the fence separating Sinai and Gaza and then push the population towards Egyptian territory by force, which requires a strict Egyptian position.”

He concluded that Egypt faces a major problem related to its image internally and regionally if it allows Israel to occupy this region and displace its residents, “which may push it to take a more decisive stance during the coming period, in addition to the possibility of intervention by Washington, which will not sacrifice Egyptian-Israeli relations, which represent the cornerstone of the stability of the region.” ", as he put it.

As for Al-Duwairi, he believes that “Egypt paved the way for Israel to occupy the axis when it allowed it to control everything that entered Gaza, in clear violation of the Camp David Accords.”

Therefore, Cairo is currently “using harsh language in which it explicitly declares the prevention of any attempt to occupy the border strip,” in Al-Duwairi’s opinion.

But Mustafa does not believe that there is a final political decision to occupy the axis, and says that what is happening is an attempt to pressure Egypt to accept new security arrangements in the region.

Source: Al Jazeera